Don't Fear the Reaper
by Mac-Attack75
Summary: With the collectors destroyed, Shepard now has to unite the galaxy against the Reapers. But an old enemy will take advantage of the councils divided attention and could destroy any chance that the galaxy has of defeating the Reapers.
1. Prologue

This is my first ever blog, and my first ever fanfiction, but if anyone has any adivce at all please, don't hesitate to tell me because I always enjoy constructive critiscism. Hopefull there will be more to come soon. Also, please feel free to comment, the more the better as not only does writing give me something to do, but I want to make this as good and interesting a story as I can for everyone and not just me.

P.S.-I apoloigize in advance for anything that seems to be too close to the work of other fanfiction authors, but as they say Imitation is the best possible form of flattery and anything that I might borrow from the work of others is only because I personally believe that this portion of their work is simply too good to not be spread by others in acknowledgement of their work.

P.P.S.-Just some background info on my Shepard his name is Alexander, he is a Spacer, War Hero. And other pieces of Shepards personality and his actions and hobbies are somewhat of a reflection on me, but you will get to see those all in due time. And also the story itself is set right after the final cutscene of Mass Effect 2, and also lets assume that everyone survived the final mission.

P.P.P.S.-I originally wrote this for the Bioware Social Network blogs, and when I transfered these files to her I decided to leave them in...

Read, and Enjoy!!!

Prologue:  
Walking towards the elevator at the rear of the cargo bay Shepard was avidly staring at the data that they had obtained from the Collector base before its destruction. He was still smiling at the look on The Illusive Man's face when he walked out from the range of the Holo-Projector. He was already thinking of what he would have to do to get everything back up to speed onboard the Normandy, and looking around at everything that was screaming the Cerberus Logo at him he realised that the first thing on his list was lots and lots of paint.

Looking over at the other person in the elevator he saw Joker, who was still holding his shoulder a little bit. "joker, you need to talk to doctor Chakwas you look like you damaged something during your little act of heroics".

"I'm fine commander seriously nothing to worry about". The look on Joker's face was plainly broadcasting that he wasn't as fine as he looked.

"Well either way just go up and check in with her, we need you in good order. Besides, you're the only person I trust to fly this ship".

"Okay okay, I'll go see her, but personally I think we have bigger things that we need to worry about".

Looking up at the cieling in the elevator Shepard started to speak. "EDI, I need a damage assesment, do you think we would be able to make it to the Citadel or not"? As he finished the sentence he leaned over and pressed the button for engineering.

EDI in her cool crisp voice said, "Maybe Commander damage was extensive, but mostly structural and superficial at that so long as Joker doesn't put me through any particularly showy stunts we should all be just fine".

Right then the door to the enginerring deck opened and Shepard walked out, turning around before the door closed Shepard said "Set a course for the Citadel, but not before you get checked out alright. If you can handle it as you are then fine, but don't start piloting before then".

Looking thoroughly exasperated he said "Okay, fine geez, your starting to sound like EDI".

And out of the speakers built into the cieling EDI's voice said "You know I can hear everything you just said", her voice clearly annoyed now.

Looking up and flashing his 'patented' Joker Smile he exclaimed "Sorry Mom"! Joker leaned over and pressed the button for the Crew Deck and flash Shepard a half hearted icy look that was meant to say well thanks for getting me in trouble with the Missus.

Shepard flashed his own smile back before turning and walking towards the engine room. As soon as he entered Tali turned around and just started talking, "Just So you know, I'm running a fever, I've got a nasty cough, and my sinuses are filled with something that I can't even describe. And it was totally worth it."

Putting on a stupid smile he promptly began strutting around and looking at Tali. She giggled and gave him a little shove. He walked in close to her and grasped her hands in his and he looked down at her more growling than actually saying "I was wondering, do you have any of those antibiotics left? After such a stressful mission I think that we need to relieve some stress". He put special emphasis on this last word as he let go of her hands and walked away. Saying "I'll see you later". As he walked away he waved, and the only response he got in return was a giggle before Tali turned around to get back to work, she sighed. She couldn't wait for later.

Walking out he went back up to the Crew Deck, and stopped off at the medbay, walking in he saw that Joker was still there. He said "So doc, is Joker gonna be fine to fly the ship, I don't like the idea of anyone else flying the ship and we are just floating adrift at the heart of the Terminus Systems.

Doctor Chakwas turned from the scanning bed where Joker was lying down and said. "He'll be just fine a couple of hairline fractures but nothing too serious."

"Good, Joker you already know where we need to go." Shepard turned around and left, he looked over and saw that Rupert was already hard at working cleaning up after leaving everything as it had been when the collectors had taken control of the ship and abducted almost the entire crew. Shepard nodded at him and Rupert responded in turn. Shepard's next stop was to Miranda's office. As soon as he walked in without even looking up Miranda started talking.

"Hey Shepard, since our break with The Illusive Man earlier I have been busy disconnecting the remaining bugs that were installed throughout the ship. Each one takes awhile and the only person who effectively removed them all so far was Mordin. I have actually been busy working with him on this endeavor but it will still take a couple of days for them all to be removed."

"Good, and while your working on it I already have EDI working on a damage report, but I am worried that she won't even be able to acknowledge the existence of areas where her internal sensors have been damaged."

"Sure I'll let you know if there is anything that EDI can't identify on her own."

"Also if you could compile a shopping list for me while we're on the Citadel I'll see what we can get to fix this ship up right." At these final few words he banged his open fist up against the bulkhead. And with a smile he made an about-face and left.

Miranda had a pretty good idea what it was that had given Shepard that extra little bounce in his step, despite the fact that only an hour or two ago thay had all somehow managed to narrowly escape the clutches of death. And while the idea of something bringing happiness to Shepard gave her Happiness. She also realised that she was unhappy at it not being her that gave him that hapiness.

Heading up to the CIC Deck Shepard checked in with kelly, and after having nothing new to report he then went straight up to the Captains Cabin. For another hour or so he was busy doing paperwork. Organizing Shore leave for everyone, especially Kelly that last outburst that he had experienced while talking with her had him seriously worried. He also was trying to create a shopping list. And from right at the top just like he had promised himself that he would was Fresh Paint. Also looking down at the uniform he was wearing and seeing the large Cerberus Logo emblazoned upon he realized that he was going to have to get both himself and the rest of the crew new uniforms. That was of course, for any of them that wanted to stay with him. He'd have to get Kelly to check on that, since she new every single member of the crew as well as can possibly be expected in such a short amount of time together.

In probably less then an hour Shepard felt a pair of hands from the muscles at the base of his neck, around his neck, and onto his shoulders before he was turned around in his swivel chair. She had wanted to surprise him, and so she had popped off her facemask before entering the Cabin. Shepard looked into the face of the beautiful women before him. He was dismayed to see that she had actually been downplaying the effects of their last intimate encounter only a few hours before. Feeling a little bit nervous at being exposed to open air all of those fears began to drift away when she saw the smile that He flashed her, the one that made her melt every time that she saw it. All she could say was "Hey Shepard."

Showing a slightly upset expression at the word Shepard Tali quickly became worried that she had done something wrong. But before she could start to apologize Shepard stopped her, saying "Please Tali, don't call me that not anymore Alex is just fine."

Confused at first, but quickly catching on to the fact that it wasn't really her fault at all she managed to stammer. "Ohh-oh-okay, Alex." She started to lean in for a kiss when he stopped her.

"Tali, are you sure you're alright, I can wait, I don't want to force you to do anything that you don't want to do. And you don't look like you're just a 'little bit sick'". The concern and anguish at the idea that he had made her this sick already was plain to see on his face.

Horrified at the look on his face, she hadn't realized that her getting even a little bit sick would cause him such anguish and worry she immediately started to think that this entire thing had been a bad idea. She said "Shepar-Alex, I don't want to cause you any pain. I mean if you are going to get thi-this upset over me getting mildly sick then I shouldn't have even told you how I-how I feel."

Shepard smiling at the still over-the-top nervousness of the beauty that was in front of him pulled her closer, saying "Tali, I love, you and there is no one else in this entire galaxy that I want except you I just want you to be safe."

Stammering after looking at that damn smile, the one that got her every time she saw it. She managed to say "Alex, the thing is-I know that I don't feel well right now, but whenever I'm with you that makes it all better." Before he could stop her she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss on the lips. Leaning back some so that she could speak she whispered "Besides the more time we spend together the better my immune system will be better able to adapt to you." She kissed him again, a little bit nervously, but less than she had been.

Giving a deep, animal-like growl he picked her up saying "Come here."

She giggled. Wrapping her arms around his neck as he scooped her up into his arms he carried her over to the bed.


	2. Chapter 1

So, this is the first real chapter of my story Don't Fear the Reaper. Once again, anything that anyone thinks was taken from their FanFiction I do apologize I don't intentionally attempt to steal from you. But your ideas are soooo Good. This chapter is set a few hours after the end of the prologue.

Tali gave a contented sigh, as she laid her head down on Shepard's chest. She wished that this moment would never end. She would be happy just to lay there for the rest of her life listening to his heartbeat. It was kind of strange; his heart beat so much faster and stronger than hers did. He gave another subconscious animal like growl, and Tali snuggled in closer to him. She fell back asleep for a while.

Shepard was woken up by a particularly strong sneeze from Tali. He looked over at her, she was still asleep, and she was busy snuggling as close as she could to him in her sleep. He smiled, but realized that as much as he wanted to stay here with her for as long as he could he had a duty to others aboard this ship. He got up, got dressed, and carefully planted a kiss on her forehead before he left. Walking into the elevator, he pressed the button for the CIC. Walking into the CIC, the first thing he did was talk to Kelly again, just to see if she was doing any better. Seemingly sensing who it was behind her, Kelly turned around. "Hey, Shepard. Sorry for how I acted earlier. That Kelly is gone now, the normal one is back." She gave him a half-hearted smile that told Shepard everything he needed to know.

"Kelly, how do you think a week or two of shore leave would sound, for the entire crew?"

Still looking a little bit out of it, Kelly did seem to slightly perk up at the idea of some time away from all of the stress of saving the galaxy. Besides if the councilor goes crazy who is going to psychoanalyze her? "That sounds like a great idea commander. Is there anything else?"

Just realizing that he had forgotten to earlier. He simply said "Yes there is Kelly, I don't know if anyone else has been informed of this but I have officially broken myself away from Cerberus, now I know that I can count on everyone from my time to follow me around some more. But I don't know about the rest of the crew. Before we get to the Citadel do you think you could find out for me?"

Smiling a little she said "Sure thing commander."

"Thank you Kelly."

Shepard started to walk away, but before he got more than a foot away he heard Kelly speak again "And commander, for the record, I'm still with you."

Turning around Shepard saw Kelly give him a smile, before he walked away. The next thing that Shepard did was to go to and check up on Joker. Walking into the cockpit, Shepard also walked in on another argument between EDI and Joker. "-I'm telling you EDI I really am fine, seriously to think I originally was joking about living with my Mom again." Spinning around in his chair Joker saw Shepard and stopped spinning as fast he possibly could. Intentionally acting like he knew that Shepard hadn't seen him being even stupider than usual Joker said "Well, hey there commander, did you get a good nights sleep?" From the inflection in his voice Shepard knew that Joker was intentionally fishing for some 'juicy' information. For professing not to be a people person, he sure as hell loved to hear the latest gossip.

Ignoring him Shepard asked "So, what's our ETA?"

Looking a little bit disappointed at not getting a 'bite' Joker said "Well commander we should actually get there in a few more hours. The ship's been beaten to heel but she's tougher than she looks."

These last words were emphasized by Joker patting one of the consoles near him. EDI said, "Well, I can assume that was a compliment Joker, so thank you."

"Joker looked up at the ceiling again when he said "Anytime." Flashing another one of those patented 'Joker' smiles up at the ceiling Shepard left the cockpit.

As he walked Shepard just started talking, knowing that EDI would be listening. "EDI, any news on that damage report yet. And has Miranda reported any areas that your internal sensors might have been damaged?"

EDI's calm, crisp voice responded immediately "Some of the crawlspaces have lost all internal sensors. Other areas minor loss of functionality. But for the most part internal sensors are fine. There was a lot of structural damage to sections of the ship. And the Normandy's port 'wing' will probably need to be given a overhaul. The last thing I want is for it to be in the process of adjusting and suddenly come flying off. As you yourself saw the Cargo Bay is wrecked. Our Gardian defense systems are offline, as well as the Thanix cannon, we will also need to replace the starboard armor. External Sensors are semi-functional, and the LADAR systems on the starboard side of the ship are entirely gone, we have a better chance of spotting anyone sneaking up on us by staring out a window." There was an actual hint of stress in EDI's voice, while an AI without a human body, having come as close to absolute destruction as she did probably had brought her own 'mortality' to the forefront in her mind. And if nothing else seeing as how she saw the ship as her 'body' all of the damage she had taken might be seen by her as 'disfiguring'.

Shepard was processing all of this information, realizing that this was going to cost a lot of money, when he realized that EDI had stopped her sentence, sounding like she wasn't finished. "Is there anything else EDI?"

"Yes, there is, while relatively undamaged the Drive Core was rattled pretty badly by the collisions with some of the debris around the Collector Station. We will have to recalibrate it from scratch, a process which can depending on how badly it is out of calibration take as long as a month."

Shepard, processing this stopped and stared at the ceiling, processing this particularly annoying piece of information before saying "EDI, is there any way for you to know how long for certain that will take? Is it really bad?"

"Unknown but because we haven't actually exploded yet, leads me to assume that it won't take us as long as an entire month."

Continuing his walk Shepard said "Thank you EDI." Going over to the elevator, Shepard walked in and pressed the button for the crew deck. As soon as he got out he walked over to the med bay and saw Doctor Chakwas working at her desk.

Turning around when she heard the door open she said "Hello commander, is there something you want?"

Looking at her Shepard said "Just wanted a report on how badly everyone has been wounded. And also I decided to come in for a check up. Never hurts, besides I didn't get a chance to earlier after we got away from the Station." As he said this he ran through all of the previous days events and realized that he had a lot more Medigel before the mission than he did now.

"Sure thing Shepard, lets have a look." Shepard lied down on the exam bed, while Chakwas ran a couple of different devices over him. After a few minutes she simply exclaimed "Jesus Shepard, how can you even walk?"

Looking surprised and concerned Shepard asked "What's the matter doc?"

"Well, you have a couple of hairline fractures in various bones all over your body, no internal bleeding but there is extensive bruising to some vital organs, and you have a lot of small burns, contusions, and shrapnel wounds all over your body. I can't believe you even made it back to the ship in your condition. How much effing medigel did you plaster on yourself anyways?" Taking another tool Doctor Chakwas waved this device all over her body. It was sending out infrasonic waves that liquefied the medigel so that the wounds could be properly healed. Without the benefit of the medigel's anesthetic capabilities Shepard suddenly felt his entire body ache.

Looking up at her from the bed he asked "So, how long am I gonna be out?"

Doctor Chakwas' only reply was "Thankfully not too long, you've taken a lot of damage, but its mostly minor stuff spread over a large area of your body." As she said this she was all over the place one minute she was back at her desk, prepping some tools and the next, she was back at the bed and was administering morphine and applying tweezers to a couple of small holes in Shepard's body that he had forgotten even existed until now.

Right after that the morphine started to kick in, and that was the last thought that Shepard had for a while...


	3. Chapter 2

This is my second full chapter of the story, as always please read and enjoy. And also leave comments the more good comments I get and the more constructive criticism the better I will be able to write, and the sooner the next chapter will get finished. And also if you could spread the news about this story that would be great.

This chapter is set a few hours after the end of the last one.

Coming to it took Shepard a few minutes to make a rather simple conclusion, He was really, really doped up. Trying to stand up his hand slipped on the edge of the biobed, causing him to flop back down onto the bed. He heard footsteps coming from somewhere nearby. But he couldn't see who it was because the lights in the medbay were dimmed, and because he had to fight tooth and nail to keep his eyes open. The last thing he heard before he drifted off again was "Get better you bosh'tet."

Waking again this time Shepard felt a lot better. This time, Shepard was able to keep his eyes open easily. The first thing he saw was Tali hanging over him, even with her mask on Shepard could tell that she was absolutely beaming. Leaning over she whispered "hey there handsome."

Shepard smiled back at her, saying "Hey, what time is it?"

EDI replied for her, "Roughly an hour before we arrive at the citadel."

Looking up at the ceiling Shepard said "Thanks EDI."

"Anytime commander."

Shepard saw that there were some small bandages over portions of his body still. Looking over at Doctor Chakwas as he started to absent-mindedly caress Tali's arm he said "So Doc, how long till I'm back to a hundred percent?"

Looking up at him and Tali Chakwas put down the datapad she had been working on and started speaking. "Well, it shouldn't be too long so long as you don't do anything stupid." Looking over at Tali now, "So, don't let Grunt or Garrus get anywhere near him for a while." Both Shepard and Tali laughed at that. Shepard started smiling as in image popped in his head of an old earth show called Jackass, and he could just imagine Grunt and Garrus cheering him on as he performed one of the incredibly stupid stunts he saw on the old recordings.

Getting up Shepard gave Chakwas a "Thanks Doc." Before he left the medical bay.

With Tali in tow he started heading towards the elevator. Getting in and pressing the button for the CIC Shepard wrapped his arms around her waist from behind. She giggled and only half-heartedly tried to get free from him. Shepard pulling her in closer and craning his neck around to look at her he asked "So, you never told me earlier, with the immuno boosters how long can you stay out of your suit?"

Tali, seeing one direction the conversation could be going she giggled again before resting her arms on top of his and leaning her head back against his chest and said "Well, just around you I can spend a while, maybe seven or eight hours. But in a less controlled environment probably less, closer to three or four. But Mordin and Doctor Chakwas may be able to help us extend that time, we'll see."

Right then the door to the CIC opened and Shepard walked out. She made to press the button for the engineering deck when Shepard held up his hand and signaled for her to stop. Instead she followed him.

Nodding to Kelly as he walked by, he used the route through Mordin's lab to get to the briefing room. Walking in he was pleased to see that while not everything was completely repaired, the floor had been swept up of debris, and the beam that had been in the way of the door had been moved off to one side. Over the intercom, he sent requests for Legion and Miranda to join them.

It wasn't long before they both arrived. Walking into the room Miranda asked "Yes, what is it Shepard?"

Shepard gave her a small smile of welcome before saying "So, is our break from the illusive man complete yet?"

Looking down at the ground Shepard could clearly see that she was feeling like a little girl again, after having just betrayed another father-figure in her life. She looked up after a minute or two and said "Yes, and before I closed our link to the system I broke through some firewalls and downloaded some technical data, and emptied out a couple of bank accounts."

Looking surprised at this revelation, and fully coming to grips with its implications the only thing that Shepard could say was "Good work." Miranda seemed to glow a little bit with pride at those words. "What kind of Technical data are we talking about here?"

Miranda looked a little bit exasperated as she admitted "I don't know yet, I've been working on it but while I am supposed to be a genius The Illusive Man must have found someone better when it comes to computers." She flushed with embarrassment when she admitted that there wasn't something she could do perfectly at the drop of a hat.

Looking down at the floor then back up again Shepard asked "How much money are we talking here?"

Smiling a little sheepishly she said "Ohh, around half a billion credits."

Shepards jaw dropped, the first thought that came into his head was that wherever the Illusive Man was, he was probably throwing a fit. "That was really good work Miranda."

"Thank you Shepard, anything for a friend." Even as she said that last word, she felt a pang of pain inside her. Just friends that though echoed in her mind, just friends.

Shepard seeing a pained expression pass across her face for a minute mentally flagged it to come back to her later. Turning to Legion he asked "Legion, can you determine how far away from the edge of the galaxy the Reapers are, and estimate how soon they will be here?"

Legion who had been busy staring off into space immediately snapped its head in Shepard's direction when he began to speak to it. His reply was "My best estimate would put the Reapers at a distance of 108,920,657,391 Kilometers away from the edge of the galaxy. And if the speed at which the old-ship Nazara was shown to move at I would estimate that they will arrive at the edge of this galaxy in no less than three years."

Shepard replied to them both "Thank you, you are both dismissed." Turning to Tali he asked her "I was thinking the Normandy is pretty beat up, I know that the Citadel has some of the stuff we need, but do you think that they have everything we need?"

The Quarian mechanical genius was quick to respond, she said "Maybe, we'll just have to see how bad the damage is when we start to remove some of the panels and look at the Normandy's 'foundations' if those are good then we might be able to even shave a few days off of that earlier estimate."

Walking in and wrapping his arms around he whispered 'good'.

The next thing both of them knew they both heard Joker's rather exhausted voice saying over the intercom "Hey Commander, better come up here were about to dock with the Citadel."

Both of them left the Briefing room together.


	4. Chapter 3

Here's the next chapter of the story, I'm really gonna start involving other characters and building on them from here on out. I'm also gonna begin 'fleshing out' my version of Shepard, as I have said before some aspects of him are going to represent aspects of me. Also, I apologize for making this one kind of short but it seemed like a good place to leave off on this chapter. And as always, enjoy.

Walking back into the CIC Shepard found the entire crew assembled around the edge wall. Realizing that they were all expecting a speech from him Shepard walked up and stood on the podium overlooking the galaxy map. He turned around, looking at the faces of every member of his team, and every member of his crew. He began to speak "I'm not gonna lie to you. I, at least, am no longer working for The Illusive Man." The entire crew stayed silent, news does indeed travel fast on small ships. "I made that decision personally, and with the intent of keeping this ship. I won't force anyone to stay, but I can't and won't afford to keep anyone onboard this ship that isn't entirely behind me. So if there is anyone here who has absolutely any reservations at all about my decision, or for that matter anything that I have done over the past few weeks then you better leave now." No one made a move. "I am gonna warn you all now, there is no backing out on this one. If you sign up you sign up for the long haul. And there aren't gonna be any pit-stops along the way." Shepard looked around at everyone in the room before saying "So, anyone whose got any problems, you better say 'em now". Nobody said anything for a few minutes.

Then Shepard saw Joker hobbling forward. Joker didn't speak until he had come to a full stop, a sufficient distance in front of everyone, he said "I think I speak for everyone here when I say 'right behind you commander.'"

Next came Kelly "I'm with you."

Grunt next, "I follow you battlemaster."

Garrus walked forward with a shrug saying "Sure, lets do it."

Jack decided to stay leaning against the wall but she still said her piece "****, might as well come along too."

Zaead and Kasumi, who looked like they had been quietly conversing both stepped forward, Zaead said "If the pay is good, we're in."

Shepard looked at Tali, she responded in kind. She stepped forward without saying anything. Shepard already knew that she would follow him to hell if that was were he had to go.

Legion didn't say anything but he stepped forward also. As did Jacob, and Mordin. Samara stepped forward saying "My oath is my bond and I still one to fulfill."

Thane with a nod to Shepard stepped forward, Shepard replied in kind. The only member of his team left was Miranda.  
She hesitated, not because she was afraid of danger or her own death, but because she didn't know how far she could go with out betraying someone else again. And this could be clearly seen on her usually well composed face. But she did eventually stepped forward. Flashing him a weak smile she half croaked out "I'm with you commander."

The next two people to step forward were Gabby and Kenneth. And this was what finally did it. Seeing Gabby, Ken, Miranda, and Jacob already signing up with the Commander all of the others followed suit, at first in groups of twos and threes as people went together with their friends. But soon the entire crew had stepped forward into the middle of the CIC.

Shepard chest and heart swelled with pride, as everyone here showed their belief in him to lead them through this. It took him a second but he eventually managed to say "Dismissed." Everyone scuttled back to their personal work stations. And Shepard walked forward to where Joker was just easing himself down into his chair again. Looking out the window Shepard saw the Citadel coming up fast in the windows of the ships cockpit. And silently Tali wrapped her arms around Shepard from behind hugging his well muscled chest and whispered to him "Nice speech."

"Thanks."

Noticing them have a moment Joker decided to hold off on being himself. He was to close to getting a vacation to get flushed out of the airlock by a pissed off Shepard. However they were close enough that he might as well announce his presence to the Commander before they did anything that he would get spaced for ever mentioning again. With that he pressed the button and said "Ladies, and Gentlemen this is your captain speaking, currently we are flying at a speed of a couple hundred thousand miles per hour and will be arriving at our destination shortly. And thank you for flying Air Normandy." The entire crew knowing where they were heading and knowing that while the ship was repaired they would be getting time off all started to cheer. The entire ship rattle at the sound of everyone raising a ruckus. The windows down in Grunt's 'room' were literally vibrating from the power of his yell. He wasn't going to be partying though he was going to find a good fight somewhere to help him relax.


	5. Chapter 4

Here's the next chapter I'm really gonna try to start fleshing out the characters in this one. Keep an eye out for hints of the beginning of some relationships between other members of the crew. This one begins a few minutes after the Normandy Docks at the Citadel. And as always, enjoy.

The crew, had assembled in a military rank and file formation with civilian clothes on and bags of their things that they wanted to bring with them for the next month on the ground beside them and draped over their shoulders and underneath some of their arms. Shepard began to speak, "Okay boys and girls, I have one simple rule while we are here: don't do anything stupid." With those words Shepard eyed Grunt and Garrus who were standing beside each other in the front row.

Garrus gave him his best 'I'm totally innocent look' and said "What? Why are you looking at me?" A couple of people snickered. And what was that, did Miranda actually blush? Shepard was intrigued but decided to leave it alone.

Looking around and seeing Thane and Kelly standing beside each other in the line Shepard began speaking again "I just want to let you know that if any of you go and get yourselves killed, I'm gonna find you and kill you again." A couple of the former Alliance members of the crew chuckled at the old joke C.O.'s would give to their personnel before letting them off on shore leave. Even Jacob, who usually never laughed couldn't help himself from having a mild case of nostalgia from that one. Shepard looked over at Jacob, and saw Kasumi standing behind Him and Zaead. But Shepard seeing the looks of desperation on some people's faces to get out of here and start their vacations said "Go on, get outta here." And with that he made a shooing motion with both hands and the Normandy's crew broke ranks.

Tali walked up to him from here place in line, dropped her bags at Shepard feet and walked in to hug him. She leaned back so that she could look at him straight in the face though. She said "So Alex," putting an emphasis on the word she continued to say "what's first?"

Shepard in total bliss with Tali wrapped around him, was simply back and forth a little bit on the spot with Tali swaying with him. He looked up and sighed as if he were making these plans up off the top of his head. But Tali knew better. He said "Welp," looking down at here again pretending like he had just finished formulating this plan of his he continued "I was thinking, that we find a hotel room, drop off our stuff, and deal with some business."

Tali tensed up at the sound of this, this was supposed to be a break from fighting the Reapers, possibly the only break they would ever have together and he was already talking about getting work done. But, giving him the benefit of the doubt she said "Like what?"

He looked down at the ground and back up at her before saying "We might as well go see Anderson, and the council now. Hopefully that data will finally convince them to stop hiding their heads in the sand."

Tali giggled at Shepard's phrase she asked, "I get what you're saying but you'll have to explain that phrase for me."

Shepard, looking like a good idea had just struck him didn't say anything at the time. But Tali knew that he was thinking up something good. He broke free from her but left his left arm wrapped around her waist. Picking up the bag containing Tali's only possessions and throwing it onto his shoulder along with his duffel bag they walked off into the crowd together.

For a while they just kept walking through the crowd, just taking in the sights. Shepard didn't mind at all that the duffel was starting to dig into his shoulder. After a while Tali looked at him and asked "So where are we going?"

For a minute she was worried that he really was making things up as he went along, and for some reason that scared her. But he looked down at her and said "Don't worry were about to get a cab to where were going." This had Tali totally confused they had passed by a couple of stations where they could hail a cab to come pick them up, this must be something special.

In a few minutes they walk up to another one of the cab stations, and Shepard pressed a couple of buttons. In less than a minute a cab showed up. Putting their things into the back Shepard told the driver to take them up to the Presidium. That explained it, the Presidium was a restricted area for non-governmental officials that weren't important or famous enough to be allowed up their. And only certain cab companys were allowed to take anyone to or from the Presidium.

For a little over thirty minutes neither Tali nor Shepard said a thing to each other they were just happy to hold hands as they looked at the citadel out of their windows. And the driver didn't make any attempts at small talk. When they did arrive at the Presidium they landed in the Financial district. Shepard payed the driver and took their stuff and left. They started walking again, Tali was confused now, she had expected the cab to drop them off in front of wherever they were going to be staying but apparently that hadn't been part of the plan. She looked from side to side expecting to see one of the lower-end but still pricey hotels that made up most of the Presidium to be their eventual destination. But they kept on walking, a little ways off in the distance Tali saw a very large and very beautiful building that was obviously Asasri in origin. They kept walking strait towards it, Tali looked at the sign over the door and it read Tranquility[/b]. She thought she might have heard of this place, living in confined spaces with lots of people like on the Migrant Fleet meant that gossip was a part of the culture and in watching some gossip shows when she began her pilgrimage she thought she remembered hearing something about some actor or other being seen doing something stupid in front of a hotel called Tranquility.

Walking into the lobby with Shepard Tali noticed that some of the staff were giving her dirty looks. Usually she would have been disgusted and simply left, but with Shepard she only felt like he made her worthy of being in here. And under her helmet she stuck her tongue out at some of the staff. Walking up to the front desk, the Asari behind the counter said "I'm sorry but the Quarian." Looking Tali up and down with a look of disgust on her face continued saying "won't be allowed to stay here."

At these words Shepard bristled, there was no way in hell anyone was going to talk about Tali like that and he was abut to give her a piece of his mind when Tali, sensing what was coming and knowing that it wouldn't end well grabbed his arm above the elbow and whispered "Alex, calm down. We can go somewhere else if we have to."

Shepard shook her off his arm and stepped forward, growling and putting emphasis on the word "We, have a reservation."

The Asari was surprised at this news, and checked her computer. Giving them both a sour smile she said, "Well, it seems that you do." She pressed a few more buttons and announced that their room was unlocked. Taking the elevator up Tali realized that they were on the very top floor. The Penthouse.

As the elevator opened Shepard made a sweeping bow gesturing out of the door and said "Welcome to the Matriarchal Suite."

Crunch, that was Grunt's favorite sound, just like stepping on a collector. The exact same sound that came from the unfortunate Human's face as he smashed his fist into it. The exact same sound that a Turian's face plates make when they are broken. Looking at his opponent he could tell that his left cheekbone had been broken. He laughed, this wasn't the best fight he could think of but it got the job done. Raising his arms above his head he roared. The crowd went wild, and a bunch of humans, probably his victims friends, were trying to drag him out of the cage before the Krogan decided to finish the job. Grunt liked it all of the noise in this club and the fighting itself, ohhh the fighting nothing was ever as good as a good fight. This time a pair of Krogan walked into the cage, they both were squaring him up. He didn't even give them a passing glace. They were of the same size as him but Grunt could see that these two weren't fighter, there only chance was if they got incredibly lucky. The last time someone got incredibly lucky in a fight with Grunt they had lived, barely. Grunt did his best impersonation of a human smile more baring his teeth before he yelled and charged at them, the crowd went wild again.


	6. Chapter 5

This is the latest Chapter, I was going to try to work on some other characters in this chapter like I did in the last one, but the part with Shepard was too long and was too good to ruin with doing something about other characters. So keep an eye out for of squad members in the next chapter. And as always read, enjoy, comment…

Tali gasped. The room was beautiful, as was the view outside of the window. Looking over the lake below and the Base of the Citadel Tower off in the distance. Shepard, smiled and watched as she scurried around looking at everything before finally arriving at the window. Tali couldn't believe all of the space. Even Shepards cabin on the Normandy wasn't as spacious as this place was. And she was doubly surprised as they had the entire floor to themselves. In this one room alone at least 40 Quarians could live in their definition of luxury having an entire Cubicle sized space on the Flotilla all to themselves. Tali was entirely speechless. The next thing that Tali knew Shepard had snuck up behind her and had wrapped his arms around her waist. She squeaked in surprise, but rested her arms on his and her head against his shoulder. They both just stared out of the window for a few minutes, just taking in the view together.

They stayed like this for a few minutes before Shepard asked "So, do you like it?"

She was absolutely stunned, and it took her a few minutes but she managed to say "This is so amazing Shepard."

This news brought a smile to Shepard before he said "Well it gets even better" he paused for a second just to let her curiosity start to build before saying "before we arrived I had them prepare the room specially for us. The elevator ride up served as a decon chamber. While were up here you don't have to wear your suit at all, that is if you don't want to."

Tali was surprised, Shepard knew that the more time they spent together the better adapted to him. But he had cared enough to ease the symptoms even though he knew that it wasn't deadly to her and that eventually they wouldn't even happen to her anymore. All she managed to say was 'Ohhh…'

Shepard stopped looking out the window and said "What?"

She looked down at the ground before saying, "it's just that I don't know what I ever did to deserve any of this, to deserve you."

Shepard turned her around gently removing her helmet, he placed it on the table nearby. She was still looking at the ground when he placed his hand under her chin. At this her eyes looked up to him, but she didn't move. Gently he guided her head up saying "The better question is, what did I ever do to deserve you." Putting emphasis on the 'I' he gave her his best smile, the one that made her melt every time she saw it. Gently he kissed her. After what seemed to both be an eternity and still far short he pulled away. With a clear note of sadness in his voice he said "Well duty calls." With that he turned away and taking the datapad with the Reaper info on it out of his bag he started walking towards the door with Tali closely in tow. Putting her helmet back on, walking into the elevator he turned to her and said in an alluring tone "We can finish this later." Tali was still dumbfounded at all of these proceedings that were going on around her.

A short while later they both arrived at the Alliance Embassy, and walking into Anderson's office the two soldiers greeted each other. Shepard waited a second before saying, "We finally have some info on the Reapers, here."

With that he gave Anderson the datapad, whose eyes widened after a few minutes of reading. He said "You do realize that this is the proof that we need right? Finally we're gonna show them, in person." Shepard was surprised by this. But he followed in tow, as he walked Anderson was talking into his personal comm. Unit apparently calling an emergency meeting, and Shepard who had to run to keep up with the excited councilor heard only portions of the conversation "---Yes, yes I know. No, this isn't the same **** again.---No, I don't give a damn whether or not they are busy. ----Well wake him up, --- I understand it will cause him undue alarm but that is the definition of emergency. ---Don't give a damn---just wake her the **** up. Now!!! Before I have you---You'll be lucky---even find work as a garbageman. Man woman don't give a damn, just do it…"

Within a few minutes they were waiting in the main Council Chamber, because there wasn't a representative here to speak for Shepard Anderson had decided to stay down on the floor of the Chamber to represent him. But Shepard could clearly see a fourth podium up on the Dias where the Council Members sat. Within a few minutes a trio of clearly disheveled people walked in, all clearly pissed off at being disturbed at this time of the morning. Anderson, clearly didn't care he had a smug look on his face.

The Asari spoke first, "This emergency meeting of the council has begun. Councilor Anderson, apparently you have something to show us?" Her tone for once not perfectly neutral and placating to everyone who heard it Shepard heard a note of disgruntlement in her voice. Must have been sleeping in today, this made Shepard smile.

Before Anderson could respond the Turian councilor spoke next "Hopefully this time you will have some real evidence to show us, hmmm?" The Turian put emphasis on the this time, and had a hint of smugness in his voice, clearly he had enjoyed putting Anderson down in the past quite a lot. Well this time he was in for a surprise.

Anderson said, "Yes, yes I do. In fact here." He placed the datapad onto the reader built into the floor podium and pressed a few buttons, transmitting the data from the pad to all three of the readers built into the top of the podiums. All three councilors stopped reading after only a few moments before the Turian spoke again. "No, this can't be right! Anderson, you've gone too far this time trying to convince us with false information."

Anderson had a dark look on his face, but before he could rip the Turian a new one Shepard beat him to it. He slammed his fist down on the metal railing leading up to the Podium and shouted "Damnit, time and time again, we provide you proof. Time and time again we come up with evidence and you ignore us." He said pointing to the Turian and continued "And time and time again we are proven right, but you continue to doubt us." The Salarian took a breath to speak when Shepard pointed at him and the Asari and said "And time after time, you!!! Both don't say a thing, even support him!" Pointing to the Turian again "Even when the evidence is right in front of your eyes, you refuse to acknowledge it. I'm sick of it! I could have left you all to die, Hell! I probably should've seeing how you're all handling things."

This time the Asari did manage to speak, and with a dark and threatening look on her face said "Is that a threat, Commander?"

Shepard stopped for a second, trying to quell his anger, but couldn't and Anderson hadn't said anything because even he hadn't seen Shepard this mad before, besides he'd much rather watch the fun. Shepard yelled "No, but it probably would have ended your sufferings." As he said this he pointed from left to right to the three councilors up on the dias saying "Seeing how blind you are you probably would have been happy that your lives ended two years ago so that you didn't have to keep walking into walls and doors all the time." Shepard had finally gotten all of his anger out, and with a huff and shrug of his shoulders he managed to stay silent. Within a few minutes he realized that he had broken his hand on the railing, and would need to get it dealt with.

Anderson, realizing that Shepard was done and not just regrouping for the next assault stepped back up to the podium and said "Well I know what his vote is," shooting the Turian a dark look, "and you all know what I say, so what about you?" Giving the Asari, and Salarian meaningful looks.

The Salarian spoke first, he was eyeing Shepard warily, but said "Well it looks like there is sufficient information here to prove your claims.

The Asari took a minute longer, and for a minute the look on her face reminded Shepard of Aria when she had told him not to '**** with her'. But she responded in an even and diplomatic tone "I agree, there would appear to be enough evidence here to support your claims. What do you suggest we should do?"

Anderson didn't even take a breath before saying "Build, now. If we are going to stand absolutely any chance of surviving this oncoming storm we are going to need as many ships, soldiers, and scientists as we can get our hands on." And looking at Shepard he said "and allies, we are going to need anyone we can get. The council races won't be able to handle this on their own."

The Asari spoke "Very well, we will all." Giving the Turian an imposing glance "begin working immediately on this." Shepard turned around with Tali in tow began to walk away. His walk told everyone who saw him that he was still holding in a lot of anger. But the Asari spoke again "And Commander." Shepard turned around eyeing the council "While we will not tolerate any further outbursts like that ever again, we do appreciate your honesty. And we hereby task you with the mission of making allies among the various species of the Terminus, and other non Council Species." Turning from him she said "This meeting of the Council is adjourned." Shepard nodded and with an aboutface stalked off. Tali right behind him. She saw that he was holding his hand and realized that he must have done further damage to one of his fractures. But was too afraid to say anything to him right then, She liked it when he shouted but She didn't know who this other person was. He was scaring her.

Within a few minutes Anderson caught up to them but on seeing the look that was on Shepard's face decided that he too, shouldn't try talking to him right now. He pulled Tali to the side for a minute and said "When he calms down tell him that I'll call him later. Talk about the meeting, okay?"

Tali said 'sure', and scampered off to catch up to Shepard. Anderson watched them both for a moment before he turned around and went back to the Embassy. With a smile on his face he decided that he would have to find the recording of the meeting and make himself one for his own private viewing.


	7. Chapter 6

This is Chapter 6, I'm gonna try to make things more interesting here. This chapter is gonna be the set up for the second most important relationship in the story, so get set to see a pissed off/different side of Miranda all in the same chapter. And I'm really happy the prologue just went over 101 views when I started writing so, thank you all for enjoying what I'm doing as much as I am. As Always, Read, Comment, Enjoy… Peace

Walking into their hotel room a short while later. That was the thing that still got Tali, theirs[/i]. She was still so surprised at that entire concept, it hadn't even been 72 since the mission to rescue the crew had begun. Shepard who had his back turned to her comically looked up at the ceiling while clutching his hand and said "Oww."

Tali giggled at the expression on his face, he knew he had done something incredibly stupid when he had slammed his fist on the railing and know he was paying for it. But at the realization that he wasn't in any condition to do any fighting if he had to, a small thought crept insidiously into his head. What about when he wasn't there to protect her, but that was stupid he decided he had seen her fight, and he knew she could handle herself. It was just the culture that he had been raised in that was getting to him. Despite being raised on ships his parents had both been from the American south, and the concepts of chivalry and gentlemanliness was still going on in 'proper' society. But it just wouldn't leave him alone.

Tali, knowing that if he was going to get his hand fixed he would be needing some help snuck up behind him and tried giving it a look. She said "Well, you did it this time." She turned away gesturing for him to follow saying "Come on you Bosh'tet."

He meekly followed still with that look on his face at knowing that he had embarrassed himself at least a little bit. A while later, they somehow ended up at Doctor Michel's practice down in the wards. Walking in, they couldn't find the doctor anywhere in a few minutes she came out looking a little bit flustered. Shepard was wondering if he was bothering her. She said "Ohh, hello commander." Turning and looking at Tali a spark of recognition lit on her face and she said "Ohh, are you the Quarian I treated a few years back, the one with the information on Saren?"

Tali was pleased that she had been remembered and replied "Yes, yes I am." Looking between her and Shepard she said "Umm, do you think you could help the commander out?"

Shepard lifted his hand and let it go limp as if it was rendered entirely useless from its encounter from the railing. She gave it a quick glance, and a scan with some medical instrument before she said. "Sure, this is easy, just give me a few minutes." Like Chakwas she was all over the place, one minute at her desk, the next at one of her supply cabinets and before Shepard knew it she was already back and applying a bandage, similar to the one Garrus had worn, but shaped for a human hand instead of being able to be folded around to fit a more general need.

After a few minutes everything was in order, and said "Well, it really is good to see you both again, I'm just sorry that Garrus isn't here too." Shepard thought he saw something betray her but he didn't know what it was. She told them that it would take a day or two for his hand to heal but stay away from railings and he would be fine.

As they left Garrus popped his head around the door of Doctor Michel's office and said "Are they gone?"

Her reply came in a relieved gasp "Yes." She turned to him and said "So, where were we?"

Shepard was really pleased with Michel's work, he had full use of his hand, and because of the painkillers that would soak into it the longer he wore the bandage the better he was feelings. And so long as he didn't try to put his hand through any abuse he would be able to remove the cast in a couple of days. His only regret was that it wasn't even a full day into their vacation and he had already started screwing things up. This started to bring up painful memories of his father but he quickly quashed them. But not before Tali saw a quick flash of anger, resentment, and fear spread across his face. She asked "What is it?"

He looked at her and said "Ohh, its nothing just thinking about something."

She was persistent, she wanted to know she said "Tell me, you always do so much for me, I just want to do something for you."

He stopped for a second before he said "Just thinking of a bad memory from my childhood is all."

Tali asked, "You can tell me more than that."

He didn't want to say, so all he said was "I don't want to talk about it."

Tali, decided to leave it alone for now, but she did say "One, day you're going to have to tell me about your past."

He looked at her a little bit quizzically, and she said "Well, you know so much about me and mine, but I don't know much about you from before we met."

Shepard knew that sooner or later he would have to tell her but didn't want to deal with it at all if possible "Well, okay. But not right now okay, I'd personally just rather leave that entire part of my life alone. But if you really want me to I'll tell you."

Tali, placated said "Okay."

The rest of the ride back up to the Presidium was spent in total silence.

Getting back into the hotel room Shepard realized that he hadn't had a shower since before the attack on the collector base. He was tired, but he knew he would feel better if he got one so, he slipped away. And within a few minutes Tali, unsuited popped her head in and asked if he was okay. He said "I'm fine, thanks." He saw the look in Tali's eyes as she watched him showering; he said "You want to give this a try?"

Tali knew he was talking about the shower, but she had other ideas. Nerves or no she said "Yes."

He smiled, and hugging her brought her into the room, with the phrase "Come here."

Garrus, walking back to his apartment had the Turian equivalent of a smile on his face the entire way. Doctor Michel was one helluva actor, and he really enjoyed this little visit and the little 'chat' they had in the back room of the hospital. Walking into his apartment, he flicked the lights on and was both surprised and unsurprised to see Miranda waiting in the dark. She was sitting with her legs up on his kitchen table. She said "So, I see you went to see Doctor Michel. How'd that go?"

He bristled at the invasion into his privacy but should have known better from her. He said "Not bad." Giving another one of his Turian smiles, Garrus thought he saw some emotion flash across Miranda's usually composed face.

All she said was "I had no idea you were interested in Humans."

Worried that he might be castrated but deciding to go out laughing said "There's a lot of things you don't know about me, are you jealous?"

She stopped for a moment, and decided to use honesty in this instance, and said "Yes, I am." And with that she stood up, and started to scuttle away in embarrassment before saying "and by the way, I do know you're a Spectre."

Garrus' jaw dropped farther than even he thought possible. There wasn't a single thing he could say. Miranda flashed him a smile before turning to leave. Looking at the kitchen table Garrus saw a comm unit number on the table. Knowing exactly what would happen if he would call Garrus decided that he'd make her wait just a little while. Human's were a strange, bunch.


	8. Chapter 7

Newest Chapter, and don't worry for those of you who want to see some visceral and bloody combat, that will be coming very soon. I just want to finish establishing my version of the ME universe, everyone uses the Colonist/Ruthless, or Earthborn/Survivor thing to show Shepard's personal deamons, I'm trying to show everyone the dark side to what sounds like the perfect life. And I apologize for this on ebeing a little bit short, but this next chapter is going to be pretty good. And as always Read, Comment, Enjoy…

Using the excuse that she didn't want to find out the hard way that she was allergic to the soap Shepard had been using, Tali had left before Shepard had finished his shower. Shepard walked out of the Bathroom, and saw Tali radiant in a beautiful nightgown, that had probably been loaned by Kelly, or maybe Gabby as those two seemed to get along pretty well. She was sitting on the edge of the bed facing away from him, looking out of the window. He couldn't tell but it sounded like she was sniffling, worried he walked over thinking that it might be a complication from her earlier reactions. But turning the corner of the bed he saw that she had been crying. Without saying anything he sat down beside her and wrapped her up in his large arms and chest. He just held her like that for a few minutes before asking "Cica, whats the matter?"

Tali stopped for a second, she was surprised that he had remembered that among so many Quarian words that she had taught him. She sighed, saying "Its just that-that-when you 'died', before, that tore me apart. I was barely able to keep myself together at first, eventually I was able to find a purpose again serving the fleet like I always had but it was never the same. And now that the Reapers are coming… Consi-" Pausing for a second to catch her breath she continued, saying "Considering that our days might be numbered, I know we can make this[/i] work, but it won't ever be as perfect as you deserve. And now I don't think I would stand it to send you away even it is for the best for you." She looked up at him imploringly as she said this.

Shepard smiled at her already knowing what he would have to remind her of, but still needed to know what she had to say, so he asked "What do you mean?"

Tali just looked at him sadly as she said "Well, we can never be together all the time like you could be with other women, women, who can give you children."

Shepard, was a little bit amazed at how far she had already thought things out. He usually just tried to live in the moment. But he couldn't help but appreciate the irony, human women worried about having children before they couldn't anymore, she was worrying about having them for his sake. He looked down at her and said "Tali, I don't need any children to make me happy. Besides sometimes the entire idea of me having any children at all scares me."

Tali, laughed at the idea that her fearless commander could be scared at something as trivial as children and as he wiped away a few of her tears she asked "Why would you be afraid of having your own children?" She was genuinely curious, as even though due to resource constraints causing the Quarians to only be able to have one child ever, children were very much an important part of their culture.

Shepard, had that same look that he had earlier when he said "Somehow, I managed not to turn out too much like my father." He stopped there obviously trying to beat back very bad memories, before continuing "But I am always worried that any children I have would end up like him. Or that I would end up like him, and that wouldn't be fair to my children." Shepard didn't explain any further.

Tali, didn't really understand, but she knew that she would whenever Shepard was ready to reveal more of his past to her. She would just have to wait.

That night they both simply fell asleep. As both hadn't been catching enough sleep since the Collector Mission.

Garrus finally did it. Even though she hadn't been there He could clearly in his mind's eye see Miranda smiling as she answered her comm unit. He could even guess what she was thinking, even to other species I'm still perfect[/i]. He could tell that she was a little nervous when she had answered, even if she had changed for the better considering who she worked for and the majorly big 'middle finger' that she had given The Illusive Man she would probably be a little skittish as to repercussions. And suddenly showing interest in a member of another species probably wouldn't make any punishments any light on her.

A while later they both met up at the agreed on spot, she was wearing a outfit similar to her usual one, but this one was free of any Cerberus emblems and was obviously meant to be casual wear, in its own way. Walking up to her he said "Hello Milady."

Miranda just smiled at him, and stood up. He was probably thinking that this was still part of some big joke, and so he was trying to be a smartass. But she simply looked at him for a second before she whirled him around and locked her arm in his. She proceeded to start walking, her in the lead until he caught up.

Garrus was shocked he had expected people to drop out of the trees and start laughing at him for falling for it. But he was genuinely surprised to see this from her. After a minute he realized that she probably had a plan, she always seemed to have a plan or scheme of some sort. So he asked "Well, where we goin?"

Miranda just smiled and said "Ohh, trust me when I say you'll really like it."

Garrus, wasn't complaining, all he said was "Lead, on."

Mordin was simply relaxing, he knew that he didn't have much time left. He was a decade older than normal for his species, so he knew that as strong as he was still going he was by Salarian standards, a very very old man. And so that influenced his philosophy of you can sleep when your dead. Which was useful considering Salarians only needed to sleep an hour or so a night. The last few days had been spent catching up with every member of his excessively large family. And had just finished a good conversation with his favorite nephew. That boy had a bright future, if he was fighting the Reapers for anyone person in particular, it would have to be him.

He stretched, and looking out of the window of his hotel room, an idea struck him, and before it went away he rushed over to his makeshift lab, and was already hard at work within minutes. This might be his best idea yet, which was saying something. Mordin smiled as that thought passed through his head.

Jack, on the other hand was all go. She was looking for trouble within minutes of getting off the station. Originally she had planned on joining Grunt, but decided that the p****'s would be too easy for her. So she started looking for someone else to start some trouble with. The last thing she had heard, one of the cult leaders was somewhere here on the station. She could pay them a visit; see how they liked being bled dry.


	9. Chapter 8

Here's the next chapter, this one is seriously gonna be good. You're all going to see the BIG THING that sets my Shepard apart from those other 'posers' (lol). Also, for those of you that were waiting to see a badass Shepard, THIS IS IT!!! As always Read, Comment, and Enjoy…

The next morning Tali woke up first, and she just laid there, listening to Shepard's heartbeat, and looking at his scars. There were so many, she didn't understand why he didn't simply remove them. It was certainly possible. Tali simply laid like this, for a while until her sneeze woke Shepard up.

He couldn't complain, her sneezes were really cute sounding. And, they were one hell of a gentle way to be woken up, compared to most other experiences he had had. He looked down at her and seeing that she was already awake he smiled at her and said, "Mornin' gorgeous." Tali blushed, and looked down a little bit.

They just laid there together like this for a little while, neither one of them even wanted to look at what time it was. But they could tell it was morning because the artificial sun on the Presidium had been 'turned on'. Tali knew Shepard, he always had a plan, even if it was thought up in just a few seconds. So she asked "So, what are we gonna do today?"

Shepard looked at her, and then up at the ceiling and smiling he said, "Well, I was thinking that we could do some normal stuff. You know like other couples do, just go out on a date somewhere. And go shopping, the other day I decided that the loft was too empty. When the original Normandy had been destroyed, I lost a lot of personal possessions, and while all of them can't be replaced there are a few I can easily buy here on the station." And looking down he continued "And I was thinking that we could get you some things."

She was intrigued, she asked "Like what?"

He looked at her and, after a few moments said "Well, if I was getting things to give the room more of a homey feel I was thinking that you could get some things that you would want to see in there too."

Tali was a little bit confused at first and so she asked "Are you asking me to move into the loft with you?"

Shepard looked a little bit nervous, which was unusual for him, but he said "Well, if you want too?"

Tali, just beamed at him and said "Of course."

Shepard, was elated at this news. He shifted a little bit, he never liked wasting time, and even so, stores on the Citadel never closed, so he knew it was stupid. And he wanted to stay here just like this for so long, but he also could never just sit still. 'Always going' was how is mother described him. After a few more minutes they both got up and got dressed. They took a cab down to the wards, and just look at things in various stores, nothing either of them were truly interested in just things that were interesting, knick knacks and odds, and ends. As they explored the shopping district of the Tayseri ward arm, the were moving lower and lower into the wards.

Walking past an alley in a relatively empty part residential district squished between two large and bustling market zones they hear someone from the alley bark an order. "Don't move either of you."

They both stopped dead in their tracks, and looked around. Six humans, and a turian walk out of doorways and alleys around them. One of the humans, was huge and bald and had no weapons. The obvious leader of the group, another human was the only one that had a weapon that was still holstered. Thinking that he had the situation totally under control. He said "Hand over the credit chits and no one will have any problems."

Shepard eyed the other people there no one had anything major, just some pistols and knives. But other than Tali's knife, neither of them had any weapons, or armor. But Shepard didn't need a gun or knife to be dangerous. He sidled closer to Tali and whispered into her ear "Do you think you can take that guy on the left?" He asked indicating one of the knife wielding thugs.

She responded with a "Sure." Shepard could almost hear the smile in her voice, she knew she was about to see something good. As one of the thugs stepped forward with his hand out they struck. Shepard making the first move, grabbed the mans wrist, and turning his hand over and behind his back he kicked the man and he fell forward. He charged at two men, and with his arms outstretched he clothes lined them both, crushing the knife wielding man's windpipe. The other man was bringing his weapon to bear, as he landed on his back and Shepard kicked it clean away from the man's hand. Leaving a couple of broken fingers for the man's troubles.

While all of this was going on Tali had punched the man in the gut, and crouching down had pulled the knife out of the scabbard just as she launched herself at her opponent, sending a knee into his groin as her knife ripped his stomach open with an upward slash from her blade which was held in a backwards grip in her hand. This man was totally out of the fight, and she turned around to see Shepard finishing off the other 4 men.

Shepard smashed the man's nose, and spinning around and standing up in one move, he knocked the gun out of his face, and right into line with the Turian's foot as he pulled the trigger. Using his other hand, he made a fist and punched him solidly in the stomach. The Turian fell, and Shepard used a kick to the side of the head to break his right fringe off.

The large man grabbed Shepard from behind, he ducked down spreading his legs wide, he managed to drop below the man's arms. Before the man even realized what had happened he had slipped a leg behind the man, and using his elbow had shoved him backward. The man fell hard, and before he could do anything else Shepard had punched him in the throat.

Turning Shepard rushed at the leader who was still fumbling with the pistol in his holster. Just as he managed to pull it out, Shepard made 'Tiger Claws' with his fists, and using his left hand blocked the weapon down into the floor, this time however, it simply went off into the floor. The other hand Shepard used to grab the man's neck and gripping his neck muscles yanked hard. The man moved forward, and Shepard kneed him hard in the stomach as he went down. As he dropped the pistol he kicked it away.

He turned around and Tali was just standing there in surprise. She regained her composure long enough to go over to the burly man that was trying to get up and kicked him in the ribs. They both jogged away before any authorities showed up. As they went Tali stared at Shepard saying "What the hell was that you just did Shepard?"

Shepard didn't even notice that she had just called him by his last name and simply said in between catching his breath "Kung Fu."


	10. Chapter 9

Personally I like this, chapter it is one of my best in my opinion. This is the big reveal of what makes Shepard's supposed to be perfect life, not so perfect. My only real problem is the ending, so if anyone has any thoughts about it, please leave comments. As always Read, Comment, Enjoy…

Shepard and Tali continued walking, behind them they heard the sirens of the C-Sec response vehicles. Tali was still staring at Shepard, she knew he was dangerous but this was an entirely other level that she hadn't even known about. It was kinda sexy.

For awhile they just milled around a series of stores nearby as their adrenaline ran down. But eventually they managed to recover themselves. And they started walking together again, they did what they had been doing. Looking at knick knacks as they went from store to store.

After a while they both realized that they were hungry. They went back to their hotel room, and Shepard ordered for some food for himself, as well as some Turian food for Tali. The decon systems in the elevator would take care of any bacteria.

Tali, expressing an interest not to be seen by whoever was going to be bringing up their food, put her suit back on for a few minutes. Shepard wished that Tali had been here to see exactly who had brought up their food. The women from the front desk a few days ago. He smiled at her, and she gave him her patented sour smile. He could almost imagine her asking him 'So, where's your little friend? Didn't die did she?'

She left, and Shepard looked at the food, the decon systems in the elevator on the way up would take care of any bacteria. So, he went looking for Tali and found her in their room. Flipping through a selection of vid's on the viewer in their room.

She looked up at him, and switched her omni tool off saying "The food up here already?"

Shepard replied with a simple 'yes'.

Shepard left, and after a few minutes Tali came out in an outfit similar to a Human sundress, which would make sense since Tali couldn't wear human pants, due to the 'spurs' on the back of her legs. This was probably also on loan, from one of the female crew members that Tali got along with. That was something he would have to do for her, get her some proper clothes that she could wear. But in the mean time he didn't mind how it looked on her, and he said "Hey there beautiful."

She blushed a little, they both walked over to the dining room table, and Shepard being the gentlemen he was raised to be was there to pull the chair out, and push it in after she sat down. He walked around to the opposite side of the table, and sat down. They both started eating. And Shepard was just happy that Tali was enjoying the large variety of foods that she hadn't ever been able to enjoy before.

After a few minutes Tali looked up at him, and steeled herself. She asked him "Tell me more about your past, I know the story about you and the Skyllian Blitz, and I obviously know everything since then. But I don't know anything else about you, and it just doesn't." Tali stopped for a second before continuing and she then said "sit well with me, that you know so much about me, and that I don't know even half as much about you"

Shepard, smiled at her persistence that was one of the things he loved about her. She, like him went after whatever it was they wanted until they had it. It was just that by her peoples' unfortunate circumstances that what she wanted usually came at a cost to herself for the benefit of everyone around her. He put his fork down, and said "Okay, you win this round." He smiled at her again, and continued saying "Where do I start?"

Tali was surprise that she had found success, he never had said anything to her before, and these one sided conversations usually yielded more questions than she had thought possible. She paused before saying "Well, what about your family?"

Shepard looked a little bit crest fallen that she had chosen such a subject right now, but he felt that she deserved to know so he spoke anyways. "Well, mine was a lot like yours. Grew up in a military family, the first half of my childhood was spent on ships and stations. Parents weren't around that often, the only good part of it was that I had a sister to keep me company."

He stopped there hoping that in the short term this would placate her, but it didn't this merely intrigued Tali more. So she asked, "Where is she now?"

Shepard looked down at the table for a few minutes before saying "Dead."

Tali gasped, she had never had any siblings, but the other children that she grew up with were as close to as she could get and it had hurt when she had heard that one of her friends had died on their pilgrimage. She started saying "Ohh- Shepard I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have ask-."

Shepard held up a hand, stopping her. And continued to speak "No, no, its alright you want to know and you deserve to know. Besides I think I came to terms with her death a long time ago."

Tali didn't believe a word of what he had said, but she didn't stop him she sensed that he needed to get this off of his chest. She came around the table, and leading him by the hand, she made him sit down and sat in his lap. Listening to his story with rapt attention.

He continued "She was my twin and," Shepard gestured to Tali as he said "I don't know how often or even at all Quarians have twin children, but it's a commonly held belief among humans that Twins share a special bond, and can even feel it when one of them is in pain, or distress. And me and my sister felt that we actually had one. Anyways she died in an attack on our ship. My mother was on an assignment onboard the Einstein at the time, but my dad who was a marine, was reassigned to the Elysium garrison. We were hitching a ride onboard a freighter that was heading to the colony, and my mom and dad agreed that they wanted us to go to the colony. Time with fresh air and water would do us both good. Problem was, on the way their we-" Shepard paused choking up a little bit, he continued saying "-We were attacked. I guess it was slavers, or pirates but I couldn't be sure. I was 9 years old at the time, all-all I remember from the attack is that my sister fell as we were running for the escape pod. He had me on one hand, I don't know what happened in his head. I don't know whether he just didn't notice that she fell down, or that he was too scared, or that he knew that he could save me or none of us at all. What I remember is that the pirates boarded the freighter looking for something I guess, because they weren't trying to take any prisoners to sell as slaves, at least as far as I could see. They were gunning people down as they ran for the pods, he shoved me into a pod, and dived in after me. He hit the button and we were launched. With-"

Shepard huffed, trying his best to keep his composure "Without my sister, I screamed and yelled at my dad 'why'd you leave her? Why'd you leave Rachel? I hate you, I hate ypu' He just stared at the ship through the viewport of the pod, and we waited for a while until we were picked up by a passing Alliance frigate. We didn't say a word to each other after that, he worked the nightshift at a security station so he would wake up at roughly the time that I would be going to bed. It changed my dad, a few weeks later he committed suicide. After that my it left my mother broken, she loves me I know that, but she just didn't have the strength to look after me for so long after that. So I was handed off, every few months one of my aunts or uncles would unload me on the next closest relative that they could think of whenever they were sick of me."

Tali gasped again, she had heard stories of people that had committed suicide when the Geth had won the war, 300 years ago. But the survivors had passed on their mental fortitude to their children, and it was never heard of that anyone committed suicide on the flotilla. She started to stammer "Ohh, Shepard I'm so so sorry." She hugged him as tightly as she could. And he responded with the tightest hug he could give her, he started to lose his composure.

Shepard whispered "Thanks Tali, I'm sorry you had to hear any of tha-"

Tali pulled away surprising Shepard, and looking him full in the face said "Don't be, Szeretlek, you know that right?"

It took Shepard a moment to process what it was she said, he hadn't asked her what that word meant in a long time. But he knew, he only gave her a smile and hugged her again. And this time he whispered "Szeretlek Cica"


	11. Chapter 10

Hey there peoples, here's the latest chapter. Sorry this one is so short, but I am going to start making them longer, so that I can move things along. The next chapter will probably be set at the end of everyone's vacation. Be ready for some visceral combat. So as always Read, Comment, and Enjoy…

Shepard woke up first, remembering the previous days events he initially felt a little bit ashamed. He usually managed to keep good control of himself. He had many mantras in his life including 'never show anyone a weakness, even if it is a friend or ally, it would just cause them more baggage, and if its an enemy, then you show them somewhere they can hit.' He mentally shook himself, realizing that this was different, this was Tali, Cica. Besides she had wanted to know, if he hadn't really wanted to tell her he wouldn't have said anything at all. He just laid there looking at her, running his hands through the short and shaggy looking raven black hair. It had gentle steaks of dark blue in it as well, it was beautiful. A little while later Shepard couldn't be sure, she stirred. Looking up at him, she said "Well hello there handsome."

Shepard smiled, and flashing her that brilliant smile, he said "Hey there gorgeous." Shepard loved the blush that came to her face every time he said that. For a minute they just stared into each others eyes, before Tali blushed, and giggling and broke the contact.

She laid her head down on his chest, listening to his heartbeat, sighing as she did so. After a few minutes he gave a short laugh, almost a grunt really. Tali looked up and asked "What?"

He looked down at her and smiled, saying "Ohh, just thinking how old I'll be looking in god knows how many years, and thinking that you'll still be just as beautiful."

Tali blushed for a second, before she comprehended the full meaning of what he was saying and said in a rather playful tone "What are you saying Alex?"

Shepard just looked down at her and said with a grin "Just that I want to spend the rest of my life with you."

Tali had surmised this from what he had said seconds before, but she still gasped. This was one of the many things that She had wished he had said to her before his death two years ago. She looked at him and said "You really mean that, don't you?"

Shepard got up, and in just his boxers, dragged Tali to the edge of the bed, and with her sitting on it, he kneeled down on the floor in front of her and grasping her hand he said "What I'm trying to say is, Tali will you marry me?"

Tali who had been nervous as soon as she saw him starting to get down onto one knee stammered in a rather squeaky voice "Y-y-yes."  
Shepard smiled and standing up she jumped up and wrapped her legs around his waist, and clinging onto his strong frame, she rested her forehead on his and stared into his eyes as he slowly spun around on the spot, smiling at her.


	12. Chapter 11

This one is set on the last day of the vacation. This Chapter is going to have some good and imporant stuff in it. And as for what EDI looks like I chose this photo, would best fit the description. .net/5ba65f0007fb60b229320669eeefa1c0/0000035023_ As always read, comment, enjoy…

Shepard and Tali were the first ones to arrive at the newly rebuilt Normandy. Walking in EDI greeted them both with what could only be described as an exultant voice. "Hello, Commander, Miss Tali'Zorah. And how was your vacation?" Since no one could know that EDI was an AI she hadn't been able to talk to anyone at all, and after a month had gotten a bit lonely.

Shepard, knowing that EDI had eyes everywhere simply smiled at the portion of wall in front of him, as he and Tali walked in and said "And how are you EDI? How have you been doin?"

EDI replied with that same exultant voice, and said "Ohh, obviously nothing much, considered going out for a joyride, but figured someone might notice that a ship was piloting itself."

Shepard laughed a little bit inwardly at this, but he then turned away and started inspecting the areas where there had been damage in the cockpit and CIC. Tali just watched him as he toured the ship. She knew he loved ships as much as she did. She saw him turn around the edge of the central island of the CIC, and stop suddenly. Making an about face, he stopped to look at a note that had been left on the keyboard of his personal computer.

It read 'Well, we had a good run Shepard, It sure as hell was fun. I'll probably see you some time in the future, but for now I have some unfinished business to take care of. And if you just so happen to run into Vido on your adventures, do me a favor and snap his legs, and let me know where you left him.'  
-Zaead Massani

Shepard read through it again and smiled. Tali had snuck up behind him and had tried to read the note but it was written in English, and she couldn't make heads or tails of it. She asked "What does it say?"

He just smiled at the note, and said "Zaead's gone, but we might run into him again…"

Tali just made a 'huh' sound, not knowing what else to say.

Shepard turned to Tali and said "So, do you want me to help you get your stuff?"

She just cocked her head to the side for a second, before she remembered that he had asked her to move in to the loft with him. Before this vacation, she hadn't owned many personal possessions excluding her weapons. And most of them were only hygiene items. But because she and Shepard were together it kind of was useless for her to have a separate specialized bathroom just for herself anymore. She said "No, I'll get it. And placing both of her hands on his chest she said, while I do that maybe you can get the other stuff."

Shepard just smiled and said "Sure."

Within a few minutes Tali and Shepard were both riding the elevator up to the loft. Shepard with both his and Tali's bags over his shoulders, and Tali with an extra bag full of her other items. When the door to the loft opened they both walked in and started looking at the personal items that the other had been buying. They had inquired as to the significance of these items, but neither of them had gotten to see good pictures from the electronic catalogues on the citadel.

For a few minutes Tali was mesmerized by the collection of weapons that Shepard had bought. She asked him, "These are used in Kung Fu, right?"

He turned to look at what she had indicated and said, "Yeah, wanna see some of them in action?"

Flashing him a smile and showcasing her canine teeth which were sharper than a humans she said "Sure."

He moved the bags from out of the middle of the room, and Tali took this as her cue to stand back against the wall as well. Picking up a long and skinny staff made out of some material that Tali couldn't identify. He set it up in his arm, and after a few minutes of experimenting with it he began swinging it around his head and from side to side and all over the place. Tali watched mesmerized as he spun the benign looking piece of wood at speeds and with enough strength that she knew could do someone some serious damage. This was better than watching him shout, and it was kinda sexy.

After a few minutes he finished and giving a little bow, Tali took the cue and started clapping a little bit. He put the staff down and turned around to find her right behind him. He smiled and wrapped his arms around her, she giggled and buried her head into his chest. After a few minutes, EDI announced through the speakers that other personnel were aboard. Shepard and Tali broke their hug, and both went down the elevator. Shepard greeted Joker, Kelly, and Jacob, as they all entered. A few minutes later Kasumi walked in and giving him a jovial salute with her pointer, and middle finger she said "Heya Shep." As she walked by.

About a minute later Shepard heard a yell from the cockpit, and running forward to see what happened Shepard saw Joker staring at the pedestal that usually emitted EDI's avatar. Except, it wasn't an orb with a neck, like it usually was. Instead there was a women in its place. And Joker was just staring wide eyed at the hologram.

After a minute Joker looked over at Shepard and stammered "Sh-Sh-Shepard 100 credits says you can't guess who that is" with that he pointed at the hologram.

Shepard already knew, and was amazed at how Joker could still be Joker when he had just nearly had a heart attack. He said "EDI, when'd you make yourself an avatar like this?"

She replied "Well while I was waiting around with nothing to do. I came to the realization that I was an AI, not a VI. And even VI's have faces, and bodies. I guess you could say I got jealous. So, I made one of my own."

Shepard just shook his head, and as he was walking away he said "EDI, warn us next time. You nearly killed Joker."

All she said was "Sorry Commander."

A lot more crew members had filtered in while he had been dealing with Joker, but he walked forward into the airlock just as Miranda walked up, under the arm of Garrus. Shepard's jaw dropped, and Garrus just gave him his best smile as he walked by, and lifting his hand off her shoulder he gave him a single flick of his wrist in a wave.

Within another half hour the rest of the crew minus Thane was aboard. Shepard, knew that if anyone would know why Thane wasn't already aboard it would be Kelly. So Shepard walked back, and Kelly seeing him walking up looked up from her station and said "Hello Commander, anything I can do for you?"

Shepard replied "Yes, do you know why Thane isn't already aboard?"

She stopped for a second, before saying "According to Thane his original estimate for his life expectancy only left a few more months. He was going to go back, and get another test done, to see how much longer he might have now. But either way he was hoping to spend more time with his son before he died." After a second she started and said "Ohh, and by the way, Mordin wanted to see you."

Shepard nodded, understanding his reasons and before turning away to leave he said "Okay, thanks Kelly. See you later."

As he walked away, he heard her say "Anytime Commander."

Shepard, walked straight to the lab. And as soon as the second door opened, Mordin looked up from his computer, he had only been onboard for about 15 minutes and he was already hard at work. He said "Ohh, hello Shepard. I think I have some good news."

Shepard smiled, knowing that this had to be something good. "What is it Mordin?"

He smiled at Shepard and said "A while ago, Tali came to me wanting some help in enhancing her immune system." He gave Shepard a knowing look as he said "I think we both know why, and while she was here she was inquiring as to there being any way that among other things. If there was some way to actually make it possible for a Dextro Amino Acid, and Deoxyribonucleic acid couple could produce any children at all. And while I was on my vacation a though occurred to me. I already know that both your species and Quarians share the same number of chromosomes."

Shepard was surprised, he leaned back at this bit of news, but he immediately interrupted the doctor saying "So what your saying is…"

This time it was Mordin's turn to interrupt Shepard, "You and Tali, might be able to produce a child. Before you ask I have no idea what it would be most definitely hybrid, gene therapy will probably be need though. To deal with problems of Sterility, and dietary problems."

Shepard started thinking of how Tali would take this news, when he stopped himself "You said might[/i]."

Mordin looked at him and said "Yes, might. Still not entirely sure, need more time to work on it. And DNA from both of you," with this he tossed a package of cotton swabs to Shepard, who immediately unwrapped one and swiped the inside of his mouth before placing it in the contained capsule and handing it back to Mordin. He continued say, "in the mean time, have garuanteed that you both can eat foods that you previously couldn't have done so before." With this Mordin waggled a couple of needles in his hands at Shepard, before handing them to him. He said "I have them both labeled, neither of you will be able to eat anything different right away. Need to take multiple injections over a time period of roughly a month or so before I would suggest any experimentation. But will eventually become permanent. Basically entire process is based off of a Human medical methodology; small exposures to materials that would cause anaphylactic…"

At this point Shepard's eyes glazed over from all of the medical lingo. He quickly said "Thank you Mordin, but I have to go now."

Mordin just smiled at him, probably surmising the reason he had to go so quickly had something to do with the headache that was probably coming on and said "Anytime Shepard, just happy to help."


	13. Chapter 12

Hey people, here's the latest chapter. Gonna be kinda good, made another tender moment in the build-up for both an important plot reveal, and for some visceral combat. Do me a favor, spread the word around about, this I'm seeing less and less people reading these, tell people about it. And most of all leave comments, I live off of comments. And as always read, and enjoy…

Shepard was thinking as he left Mordin's lab. As he walked he looked down at the first two treatments, he knew Tali would love this. Just the ability to try some of the food that he could, would definitely open up both his and her options of what they could eat. But should he tell her about the possibility of a child? He didn't know, he was worried it might crush her if she found out that it might be possible and then find out that it really isn't. As he walked he injected the one marked for him into his arm, and nearly walked into the wall beside the open door for the elevator.

Pressing the button for the Engineering he waited tapping his foot on the floor, and looking at the needle marked for Tali. He still couldn't make up his mind. But how would he be able to get her DNA onto the swab for Mordin without explaining it to her, to find out if it would even be possible in the first place. The door opened, and stepping out he turned the corner, and before he turned the corner again he stared at the door that lead to Zaead's room. He would miss him, he had a lot of good stories. But turning the corner again, he walked into engineering just as Tali bent forward from a particularly strong sneeze.

The last week or so of their vacation hadn't been the best, she still insisted that she would become better attuned to his immune system as they spent more time together. And in hindsight having been decontaminated every time they returned to their hotel room while helpful for her health did negate any hope of her becoming more used to him sooner. Because, lets face it, no decontamination system is foolproof.

Shepard felt a little bit guilty at this, and at the fact that even with all of the money that they had 'borrowed' from The Illusive Man after spending it all on repairing the Normandy, and splitting most of the remainder among the crew there hadn't been enough to buy a decon system like at the hotel.

Sensing him walking up behind her she turned, and said "Oh, Hey Al-Alex." It wasn't that she wasn't used to saying his name, but that she was unused to saying it in earshot of her colleagues that caused her to stutter.

Shepard smiled, as much as he hoped that one day she wouldn't ever be nervous around him, that stutter was just so damn cute. He said "Hey, there beautiful." Tali looked down, he couldn't see it but he knew she was blushing, all he said was follow me.

Feeling embarrassed just for saying Shepard's name in front of Ken and Abby, and EDI since she was literally everywhere, Tali meekly followed. Tali looked up at Shepard as he pressed the button for the loft, but didn't explain why. She couldn't think of anything to say and feeling as miserable as she was feeling right now, all she did was wrap her arms around Shepard's and rested her head on his shoulder. For the rest of the ride up Shepard rested his head on hers.  
The door opened, and they both walked out. And Shepard nudged the holographic door panel with his elbow to open it as his other hand was taken by grasping onto Tali's hand, on his arm. Tali was exhausted and they had only been onboard for about two maybe three hours, she had to check. But thankfully everyone including them, had shown up around noon according to the Normandy's clock, which would mean that there wouldn't be much longer before her shift was over.

Shepard sat down on the couch, and Tali followed suit. Tali let out a half contented half exhausted sigh, Shepard just smiled for a second before saying. "Tali," She just gave an acknowledging groan, before he continued "Tali, I have some good news."

This time she looked up and said "What is it?"

He just continued looking at the fish in the tank as he said "Mordin's found a way for us to, to try different foods."

Tali in her exhausted state didn't comprehend what he was saying, she said "Ohh really, how is that?"

He said "Well, these treatments, over the next few weeks will allow us to try some of the same foods."

This time Tali understood, and she jumped up, she stammered "R-r-really? How'd he do it?"

Shepard smiled, as tired as she had been she was just so excited, he said "I don't really know. You'd have to ask Mordin, and actually understand what he was trying to say. But according to him, after about a month, we should be able to try the same foods."

She squealed with joy, despite having managed to survive outside of her suit she was still limited in what she could eat. Dextro amino acid species were in the minority. And there was ten times as much food for deoxyribo species, as there was for dextro species as a result.

He smiled at this reaction from her, but he still couldn't decide whether to tell her about the possibility of a child. In those years he had been passed from one family member to another he had seen the dark side of the predispositions that the genetics in his family could lead to. Mentally he shivered and resisted the urge to press down on the scars.

Tali was just happy to be able to eat some of the things he could, she would be so much more happy if there was even the hope of being able to give him a child. He took a deep breath and started to speak. "Tali, I have some more good news."

Tali who had removed her mask, was looking up at him as he continued "Mor-" Shepard stopped as he tried to find the right way to say "Mordin, also thinks that it might be possible for us to have a child as well."

Tali gasped, and asked "What?"

Shepard said "Well, he isn't quite sure yet, but it might be possible."

Tali just laid her head against his chest as she began to cry. Shepard could only assume that it was a combination of her being sick, and the news that she would be able to give him children. Which he was already doubting himself for telling her about, but he said "Szeretlek Cica." She smiled a little bit, but the silent tears kept coming he just held her close to him.


	14. Chapter 13

Hey Guys, I am hoping that I will get a lot of positive feedback from the poll. But in the meantime I'm not going to leave my fans hanging lol. Let me know what you think of the fighting part. And spread the word leave me comments, I always like constructive criticism. And as always Read, and Enjoy!!! Peace

Shepard woke up first, and looked first at the alarm clock on his bedside, and next to Tali who was curled up beside him. Just looking at her he smiled, but looking back at the alarm clock again he realized that it was about to go off. Gently extricating himself both from Tali, and the covers of the bed he turned the alarm clock off and went to go get a shower.

Stepping out Shepard quickly got dressed, and looked over at Tali as she gave a couple quick coughs. Shepard walked over to his desk, and after a few minutes left a note on the pillow beside her. It said 'Get some sleep, that's an order.'

Stepping into the elevator, Shepard pressed the button for the CIC. Thinking about it all he surmised that the Ship was probably ready to go. The crew had all come aboard yesterday, but the supplies had yet to be reloaded into the cargo bay. And certain systems had to be tweaked to where they had been, because some idiot had reset many mechanical systems back to their factory default.

As the door opened Kelly turned around and said "Morning Commander."

Shepard returned her smile and said "Good Morning." He made a quick turn and walked into Mordin's lab. Looking in Shepard was amazed at how things had already changed, just yesterday half of the things had been changed around as the workers had moved things to get to access panels. But today just a few hours later it was like their mission to the Collector base hadn't even happened.

Mordin beat Shepard to the punch saying "Morning Shepard, do you have that DNA?"

Shepard just smiled, and handed over the swab in its container. Saying "Thank you, for this I told her last night and She was so happy."

Mordin sensing that Shepard was not, quickly said "I have a feeling you are not, yes? May I ask why"

Shepard gave him a weak smile, before saying "I'd rather not get into it."

Mordin wanted to find out, it was in his nature, but he decided not to press farther.

After a second, Shepard realized that Mordin had nothing else to say, and turned around to leave.

Walking up front to the cockpit Joker turned around in his beloved chair and said "Hey commander, have a good nights sleep?"  
Shepard, decided not to take the bait in the question and instead said "So, can you tell if anyone sat in your chair?"

Joker just smiled before saying, "I can't sense it, if that's what your asking. But I don't see any blood, and there were still tacks when I came back from my vacation." Joker gave a devilish grin before saying "There something you want?"

Shepard said "No, just wanted to ask if this new development with EDI will be causing any problems."

After a second Joker just said "No, in fact I think I could get used to seeing her like this."

Shepard just walked away shaking his head, the last thing he heard from Joker was "What? What?"

All Shepard could think was that one of these days Joker would have to find a real womanto talk to. Walking back to his personal terminal he checked his messages, most of it was just junk and he deleted it. As he did so, once or twice he subconsciously reached up and with his hand felt the new captains bars that Anderson had given him. A few days after Shepard had cooled down Tali had revealed that Anderson had wanted to talk to him after their meeting with the council. While he was there he got his own copy of the meeting, which Garrus had immediately requested to borrow, and he had been re-commissioned in the Alliance Navy. Come to think of it, Garrus hadn't given it back to him, before or after the vacation ended…

Looking through the now much shorter list he saw something interesting, a message from Alliance Command 'Requesting' his assistance. And it was relatively nearby. Giving it a cursory scan he quickly put in the order for them to head to the Adara system.

He downloaded the message to a datapad, and began walking back towards the elevator as he read it. He pressed the button for the loft it was quite, no one would need him. But at least the Alliance would mainly stay out of his way, as he tried to unite the galaxy against the Reapers. This promotion was just a formality really, Shepard hated formality.

The door opened and Shepard walked out, and silently entering the room saw that Tali was still asleep. Shepard removed the note from the pillow beside her, and quietly sat down at his desk just to think. He was already formulating a larger plan to bring about a galaxy wide alliance, to face the Reapers. Just the scale of the fleet they would need to gather just to stand a chance was mind boggling.

For a while he just leaned back in the chair at his desk and thought, but stopped himself suddenly as he realized that they may be arriving at the Adara system. Looking at the clock he realized that they were about an hour out. Getting up quietly he started for the elevator. A few minutes later, Shepard had informed Garrus, and Grunt, Miranda, Jacob, and Mordin would all be going down to the colony to see what was going on. This was a well established settlement, if something was bad enough to knock them off the grid, then Shepard would be needing the extra fire power.

A while later everyone was suited up and ready to go. The shuttle was lowered to the floor, and everyone piled into the open doors. Within 5 minutes the shuttle was about to land on the edge of the colony. The scans that the Normandy had done from orbit had been inconclusive, someone had set up a jammer down here somewhere. Shepard could clearly see that there was a problem just by looking out the window. There were fires burning in the distance, despite the pouring rain that was coming from the clouds overhead.

As the doors opened everyone jumped out with their guns at the ready. Shepard signaled for them all to move forward. Garrus ran off to find some high ground, Grunt and Mordin ran off wide left of the shuttles position. The last orders that the groups heard was "Total radio silence except for immediately pertinent intel, and coordination."

He picked up a couple double clicks from everyone's radios in response to his order. Shepard, Jacob, and Miranda started to silently prowl up the middle of a road running parallel to the main thoroughfare of the colony. A minute after they left Shepard heard the Shuttle lift off, with no one there to protect it the pilot had been ordered to remain airborne but on station for emergency pickup.

For about ten minutes nobody could find anything, not a single human being or anything else for that matter; just empty buildings. Then suddenly the silence was broken, off in the distance Shepard could hear gunfire. And over the radio Shepard heard Mordin's voice "Commander, taking enemy fire. Need assistance."

Shepard started sprinting as fast as he could yelling as he went "Just hold on, we're coming!"

They made it about four fifths of the way there before they encountered anyone. Garrus, had already been working his magic as Shepard could see about 5 dead hostiles already laying in the mud. Shepard immediately back pedaled right into Jacob and Miranda, causing a temporary pileup. Shepard turned and signaled to them that there were some armed unfriendly's around the corner, they both nodded. Using the cover of the rain and the distraction from Garrus. Miranda and Shepard dashed across the alleyway entrance and took up position on the far side.

Shepard used his fingers to signal a three count to them. Then Shepard swung around the corner and let loose a quick burst at a particularly ideal target. The soldier went down, their armor was unmarked that was all he could tell.

Shepard heard Garrus' voice over the radio, "You better hurry Shepard, Mordin and Grunt aren't doin' so good. I'll cover you just get to them, now!" Shepard didn't even hesitate, if he couldn't trust Garrus to cover them, and get them there safely who could he trust? Shepard dashed forward, firing at every target he could see as he ran by. They had only just started this new firefight, they didn't expect a charge this soon, so many of them just stood there to be swept away by Miranda and Jacobs biotics.

Shepard ran across an empty square, and into an alleyway. On the far side of the adjoining square Shepard could see Mordin and Grunt hunkered down between some crates and a wall that was quickly disintegrating from the volume of fire that had been thrown at it. Shepard waited a second before rushing forward again, right as he cleared the alleyway he almost ran straight into a YMIR mech that was repositioning.

Shepard screamed a series of expletives as he slid in the slick mud, landing hard on his butt he slid forward and right into the back of the YMIR's legs. Shepard scrambled back to his feet as the mech turned around. And began firing into his back as he ran for cover, a combined blast from both Miranda and Jacob knocked the mech back on its heels. Which gave Shepard just enough time to limp back behind their own cover.

Quelling the rage he felt Shepard activated the medigel system in his suit and felt the extreme pain in his back begin to subside. Rolling down and into the mud, Shepard unloaded an entire thermal clip into the mech. And Miranda used the opportunity to hit it with a blast from her SMG. Jacob was busy taking potshots at a sniper that was clearly visible across the square on top of a building.

The mech fell from a lucky shot to the head, Shepard yelled again "Get your heads down!" and rolled back into cover right as the mech fell to its knees and exploded.

Shepard shook off the concussive blast, and staggering to his feet he ran for a nearby building. From experience Shepard knew that the best way to get the advantage on an enemy in urban combat was to remove one of their strong points and make use of it for their own purposes. Shepard edged into the entrance of the nearest building. Sweeping every room they entered Shepard found this one to be entirely empty.

Shepard ran for the roof, and crouching low made a running jump to the next roof over. There was a sniper on this one, but thankfully couldn't hear them between the combined sounds of the gunfire and the rain. Shepard, deciding to finish him quietly pulled a knife from a sheath on his boot and lunged for the soldier.

The soldier, possibly just by luck turned right at the last minute and saw Shepard coming. The man rolled fully onto his back, and using both feet kicked Shepard off of him right as he reached the man. Shepard winded, landed flat on his back, and the medigel's anesthetic wasn't that effective. A jolt of pain shot through him as he landed. The man rushed at him with his own knife, and Shepard looking for his knife found it a couple of feet away. Shepard rolled, but the man was on him before he could reach for it. Shepard crossed his hands in front of his face and caught the knife about a foot away from the crack in his chest plate. Shepard bucked his hips as hard as he could sending the man up off of him for a second. Shepard took the opportunity, and kicked off with his foot. Sliding on the rain slicked roof Shepard was able to stand up before the man lunged at him with the knife.

Shepard knocked the knife away from him as he grabbed the mans wrist. And using his other arm to apply pressure to the back of the elbow, snapped it perfectly. The man howled in pain, and Shepard using this momentum sent the man flying face first into the ground. Cracking the polarized faceplate, apparently this also knocked the soldier out as well. Turning him over, Shepard looked into the now transparent faceplate.

Batarians, Shepard hated Batarians…


	15. Chapter 14

Here's the rest of the first serious chapter, once again tell me what you think of the combat stuff. I apologize if anyone thinks that the last part is cheesy in any way :p Read, and enjoy!!!

Shepard took stock of his surroundings. He was limited on Medigel, and low on thermal clips. Walking over to his knife he picked it up and stuck it back in the sheath on his boot. He policed the Batarian's body for thermal clips and identification.

Standing up straight Shepard looked over the battle going on down in the square, Shepard spoke into his radio "Mordin, Grunt were coming for you. Just hang tight," Shepard looked over the edge of the building he was on top of and saw gunfire coming from windows down below. Shepard continued "Jacob, Miranda can you flank the doors of the building I'm on. I'm going to flush em out, you catch em in the crossfire."

Miranda and Jacob replied with an "acknowledged." Mordin replied for both him and Grunt saying, "We read you commander, short range and line of sight radios still work, can't get anything to the Normandy, or the shuttle from our position, maybe you can?"

Shepard thought about it looking around through the rain Shepard saw a building even taller than the one he was on, and said "Roger that, We're going to be clearing out buildings along the way we'll meet you there."

Mording instantly replied "Understood commander." Shepard didn't mind that the crew was still calling him commander, even though he had been promoted, they had always known him as the commander. Would be easier to remember plus, if nothing else no matter what rank he was he would still be the commander of the Normandy.

Shepard pulled the assault rifle off of his back and walked to the entrance for the lower floors. Silently walking down the stairs, Shepard raised an arm and pressed the holographic button for the door, and as it slide open Shepard quickly scanned the room. It was blessedly empty, Shepard checked for any other doors. He proceeded like this until he reached the 3rd floor.

Shepard slipped on a spent thermal clip on the floor, and yelled "****" as he landed. Standing up he continued checking the rooms on the floor. Walking into one room, Shepard was suddenly rushed from the corner by the door. The soldier knocked Shepard over and sending both of their weapons flying into the wall nearby. Shepard staggered to his feet, as the hostile came at him again, Shepard sidestepped a wild kick the man threw at him. And when the soldier threw a punch at him, Shepard grabbed it twisted the arm underside up in the wrong direction. And sweeping the foot that the man had kicked with further out from under him Shepard lifted a boot, and stamped down hard on the man's knee breaking it.

The soldier yelped, and tried to grab for a knife. Shepard yanked the twisted arm hard, dislocating it. And as the man fell forward Shepard stood on his back and aimed his pistol at the mans head saying "Don't even think about it."

The soldier stopped dead in his struggling tracks. Shepard stood back and retrieved his rifle, before placing a sharp kick to the side of the man head that knocked him out cold as well. Shepard broke down the man's weapons so that they were useless, Shepard left the room.

He met some significant resistance on the 2nd floor, but a couple explosives were all he needed. A couple of people in another room down the hall tried to escape and kept Shepard pinned down as they made their way to the 1st floor and freedom. They only thing that greeted them was the withering crossfire of Miranda and Jacob weapons.

Shepard hobbled out of the building, the painkillers in the medigel did their job, but that didn't stop the muscles from cramping up around the wounds. They proceeded in clearing out a couple more buildings around the square. Thankfully they managed to clear the entire square and Shepard, walking up to Mordin and Grunt. After a few minutes Shepard and the rest of them climbed up to the top of the tallest building in the square.

Shepard ordered the Shuttle to come and pick both them and Garrus up. After a few minutes the shuttle arrived with Garrus already aboard. Flying over the center of the colony, Shepard saw a lot of damage. Shepard wanted everyone to return to the Normandy, if there was a ship it wasn't there any more.

Within a few minutes of leaving the planet Shepard received radio contact from the Normandy. According to Joker a ship had used the rain clouds, and the sensor/comm. jammer to escape the planets gravity well without being identified. According to him "It had showed up for a second before it went to FTL."

Within another 10 minutes the Shuttle had landed in the Normandy's cargo bay. Walking off the shuttle the first thing that Shepard did was head up to Doctor Chakwas. She was displeased that he had already been hurt this badly, but was glad that for the kind of fight they had had there wasn't anybody returning in a body bag. Shepard looked over at the prisoner they had brought back with them, the Batarian hadn't stopped whining about the arm that Shepard broke since he woke up. Right then Doctor Chakwas placed a hypodermic injector to his skin and everything started to go black.

The last thing he heard was a beautiful voice almost screaming "Where is he? If he's not already dead I'm going to kill him!"

And the voice of Doctor Chakwas saying "Easy now, he isn't in the best of shape but he should be fine."

Garrus was just staring at his best friend lying on the other side of the glass out cold as Doctor Chakwas was busy extracting metal slugs from his back. The next thing he knew there was a gentle tug on his arm, he looked over at Miranda.

The look on his face displayed his concern for Shepard but she said "Don't worry, a few bullets won't be enough to bring him down. Besides, I was hoping you could help me with some calibrations." The look on her face and the inflection on the last word got Garrus' attention, he gave Shepard one last look before turning to follow Miranda.

Shepard woke up a while later. Trying to stand up he staggered a little bit, but managed to stay upright. Shepard looked over at Chakwas who having heard his attempts at getting up said "Good evening Captain, I would suggest that you get some sleep. Rest will do you good, Joker can fill you in in the morning on what we know from up here. Shepard just mutely nodded, and before leaving he gave a look to the sedated Batarian prisoner.

Leaving the medbay, Shepard walked over to the elevator. As much as he wanted to be doing something useful the pounding in his head told him to agree with the Doctor. Walking in Shepard pressed the button for the loft, after a few minutes the door opened and he walked out. The door opened and Tali was waiting for him, with his headache Shepard didn't feel very much like a conversation but he tried anyways saying "Hey gorgeous, when'd you wake up?"

The only word that Tali yelled as she slapped Shepard was "Bosh'tet"

This only made Shepard's headache worse, and sent him reeling away from her. After a second he managed to be able to focus his vision enough to look at her as he said "What was that for?"

Tali started yelling "Don't ever do that to me again!" She rushed at him and started hammering on his chest, but she was so close to him she couldn't put too much force behind the blows.

Shepard wrapped his arms around her to try and calm her down as he said "What, Cica? What did I do?"

She looked up at him, her suit was on but her mask was off. She murmured into his chest, "You come back up from that planet, Garrus tells the Normandy to be ready to take on a wounded man. And I was worried it was you. I-I lost you once, I can't lose you again." She started breaking down after this.

Shepard just started swaying with her in his arms, gently shushing her he said "I'm here, Cica. I'm here, and I don't have any intent on leaving anytime soon…"


	16. Chapter 15

Okay everyone, I'm sorry that it has taken me longer than usual to finish a chapter but here it is. This is going to be a pretty dark chapter, and we are going to see not only what they did but who the Batarian is working for. I am a little bit worried that even though I didn't get too descriptive I still crossed a line with what I wrote in this one, please let me know. We'll also be re-introducing an old friend. However I'm pleased to say that this is the first chapter written for both a story on the BSN, and on :) Write reviews/comments people, Read, and Enjoy!!! Peace

Shepard woke up first, he was beginning to wonder what it was that made him seem to always wake up before Tali and before the alarm woke both of them up. Especially as before Tali had become a regular of the loft he had to be woken up by his alarm clock.

Carefully extracting himself from Tali, he stood up and gently began to test every muscle in his back. Everything seemed good, but Shepard never did things half way, and a general feeling wasn't enough. After a second or two Shepard began one of his old routines that he had learned from Kung Fu that particularly worked the back muscles.

After about 15 minutes Shepard was sure of it, while sore and slightly seized up he was fully healed. And thankfully the migraine from the painkiller cocktail the Chakwas had given him had worn off.

Turning around he saw Tali sitting up in the bed, with her arms wrapped around her legs watching him, she flashed him a smile with her viciously sharp teeth. Shepard replied with a smile of his own, and looking over at the clock he asked "How long you been awake?"

She said in a matter-of-fact tone "A couple of minutes." And standing up she slinked her way over to Shepard and wrapper her arms part way around his neck, clasping her hands behind his head and resting her forearms on his shoulders. Shepard pulled her in closer and wrapped his arms around her waist.

Tali giggled and with a playful look said "By the way, you have a very nice butt." Shepard broke away from her for a second and with a smile on his face started strutting around a little bit, which elicited another giggle from her.

Completing a full circuit of the room Shepard and Tali resumed their original position and Shepard began kissing along the line of Tali's jaw and neck. Right then Joker came over the intercom with the message "Uh, Commander just thought you might want to know our whiney little friend down in the medbay is awake."

Stifling a groan long enough to say to the ceiling "Thanks Joker." Shepard looked back at Tali and shrugged a little bit saying "Maybe later?"

The look on Tali's face told Shepard that she was definitely not only feeling better, but was also in a great mood. Her only confirmation was another one of her smiles, coupled with a look in her eyes that Shepard couldn't really identify.

Shepard went off to go and get a shower, and Tali who still was a little bit leery of going anywhere near soap had simply put her suit on. Since Quarians lived in their suits all she had to do was put it on and she was as good as clean.

And after a few minutes Shepard walked out of the shower, and after putting on his clothes was sitting down on the edge of the bed to put on his shoes when Tali plopped herself down beside him. Shepard turned to her and saw that she had left her mask off, and knew that she wanted a kiss before they left. But smiling a little bit he leaned back looking at her rear end, saying "By the way, you too."

She lightly punched him in the arm with the words "Bosh'tet." Shepard, smiling as he got the intended result leaned over and gave her a quick kiss. Knowing that if they kept it going for more than a second or two Shepard would be the first one to lose control broke the contact. Joker wouldn't have interrupted them if the Batarian had nothing over to say then whining about the food or his arm.

A few minutes later Shepard was walking towards the medbay, and Tali was riding the elevator down to engineering. Walking in Shepard saw that the Batarian was raving again, walking over to Doctor Chakwas she immediately turned to him and in hushed tones said "He turned off his translator's transmission system, which basically means that we can speak to him but he won't be able to reply."

Shepard thought about it for a second, and said "Okay, we don't really need him right now. You can forcibly turn it back on right?"

She looked stunned, she knew that if anyone else did it on purpose it would be painful for the Batarian but she said "Yes, yes it can be done."

Shepard nodded and said "Good, I'm going to be going back down to the planet to find out what was going on hopefully we'll have some questions for him when we get back. And by the way, bring Grunt up here and let him know in front of the Batarian that if he tries anything Grunt can have his fun before he flushes him out of the airlock."

Chakwas looked horrified because she could see from the look on his face that he meant it but she said "Okay commander, hopefully it won't come to that."

Turning to leave he said "Lets hope."

Within a half hour Shepard was riding down in the shuttle and the last word Shepard got from Joker before they lost contact was that the first few Alliance vessels were just arriving on the scene. Shepard grimaced, he remembered the first time he had been on one of the first responders to a Batarian attack on a colony, he had vomited after he had seen what they'd done do the people down there. And then like now Shepard realized that the token garrisons were totally useless. But Shepard sighed, there were some things that he just couldn't change, and one of them was the Alliance's military policies.

As Shepard lost Joker through the jammer field Shepard announced to everyone aboard the shuttle "Okay everybody, don't get trigger happy there might be more stragglers left over plus the Alliance just arrived."

A minute or so later the shuttle entered the field of the jamming device, all they got was static. Shepard, looking out the window of the shuttle saw that it was still raining, but nearly as heavily this time. And he was surprised that a colony this size had been attacked, the city's population had to been at least two and a half million strong.

It was definitely a well established colony. There weren't any actual skyscrapers but there were quite a few 15 and 20 storey buildings in the center of the city, and they were made of permanent materials. Unlike the prefabs he had seen while investigating on Freedom's Progress. The buildings, that were intact at least were beautiful, especially in their architecture. Many sweeping lines, but still jagged in a way that implied the hardness of the life on this world while focusing on its beauty.

About five minutes later Shepard hopped out of the shuttle, followed by Tali, Garrus, Mordin, Miranda, and Jacob. As before the shuttle lifted off, staying on station in case of emergency.

Shepard and his group consisting of Tali, and Garrus moved off. With the purpose of finding the source of the Jamming device, and Mordin escorted by Jacob and Miranda would be responsible for helping any survivors they could find. Shepard moved towards the middle of the city, assuming that that would be where they would find the jamming device.

Mordin and the others would be circling the periphery of the city, seeing as any survivors would probably be lying low in outlying buildings.

Through the relatively mild downpour Shepard, Tali, and Garrus stalked. Silently covering each other as they moved forward, thankfully they hadn't run into either any trigger happy survivors from the colony, or anyone left behind by the ship. Shepard thought about the other solider, one he had left behind after snapping his leg. They could go back for him if they couldn't find anyone else to bring back to interrogate.

For a while they continued trudging through the mud, Shepard could see that they were getting closer to the center of town. The buildings were getting larger and more permanent as they continued inward. According to Tali they would notice when they were within a mile or two of the device.

With the jamming device still active Shepard wouldn't be able to directly contact any members of the other team. The first indication that there was any trouble would be if they heard the gunshots.

Mordin, was circling the edge of the city looking for survivors. They hadn't found any so far, but odds were that there wouldn't not be anyone somewhere. As these thoughts passed through his head for the fiftieth or so time he stopped. Looking to Miranda, and Jacob he indicated that he might have heard something.

Looking over the rim of the 'porch' on the prefab house Mordin signaled that it was all clear. And after a few minutes Jacob had the locked door of the building opened up, Mordin was the only one that didn't turn his head away from the grisly scene that they saw in there. Even Jacob a former marine hadn't seen anything like this. With the STG Mordin had seen far, far worse.

They were everywhere, horribly mutilated bodies, shot burned and bludgeoned, and that was only the ones that he could easily identify. He didn't even want to know what had happened to all of them. Looking around the room, Mordin saw that there was another locked door. And seeing that both Miranda and Jacob were still being distracted by the scene before them he stepped around the horrible mass of bodies.

After a few minutes of fiddling with some circuits the door opened and faster than Mordin could react he was bowled over by a young man with a knife in his hand. Mordin, who was already beginning to feel his advanced age, was having some difficulty keeping the boy from finishing him off. After a second Miranda and Jacob had hauled the boy off of them. And Jacob had him pinned against a wall until he could calm down. Miranda peeked into the next room, and found a couple of other children and a single woman. She could see that they were all frightened beyond anything Miranda could even hope to imagine.

Mordin walked outside, not only did his presence frighten all of the survivors, but someone had to signal for pickup from the Shuttle. Mordin waited patiently looking up at the sky, waiting either for the shuttle to appear overhead, or for Shepard to inform them that the jamming device was offline. Either way he was going to get these people out of here. While he waited he silently said prayers for the people he had seen in that building. And wondered how many people, were lying dead in these other buildings around him. He didn't want to know.

Shepard was looking up at the gently pulsing device as Tali was working at the wires in its core. The Batarians, or whoever had used the device had made it purposefully to be incredibly difficult to deactivate. According to Tali this device, probably was controlled by a remote. So she had decided to go into the device and rip it apart.

A few seconds later the pulsating that Shepard could feel coming from the device as well as the lights on its external structure disappeared. And Shepard suddenly was overwhelmed by a wave of noise as Shepard picked up the radio chatter from the vessels in orbit, as well as the marines, who were all checking in with each other.

Among the voices over the radio Shepard ended up picking one out in particular "Hey skipper, you there?"


	17. Chapter 16

This is my second attempt at the latest chapter, I apologize for getting rid of the entry but I had this nagging feeling that this wasn't a very good representation of my work. And I vowed that I would make a better one, this would be that better work. R&R and as always enjoy…

Mordin was surprised to finally get a response from the Shuttle, and about 10 minutes later it was alden down with him, Miranda, Jacob and the survivors 12 people in all. Too many for them to stop by and pick up Shepard and his team. They'd be back in a while, as the shuttle lifted off Mordin looked back down at the colony at all of the death and destruction and began to wonder what had caused all of this. He had seen far too many unpleasant things in his career in the STG, but this was almost as bad. He'd hoped to put these kind of things behind him. As those thoughts ran through his head, another portion of his mind was thinking about the rain, and how the humans would probably have some kind of environmental devices to make living more pleasant in their homes. This gave him an idea…

Jacob was stunned into silence, as a former Alliance Marine he had seen a lot of bad stuff during his day but this was worse. And it still didn't make any sense to him, from what he could tell of the mutilated bodies of the adults they had all been old enough to be of use. Slavers usually only disposed of those too young or too old to be of instant use to them. And even if they had resisted they wouldn't kill any of the stock that they could sell. It just didn't make any sense…

Shepard replied with "I'm in the center of town, by the way I have a second team operating the edge of the colony, let your boys know. I don't want to pick up the pieces when my team is done."

Ashley clearly identifying the edge in his voice said "Understood." Shepard unconsciously reaching his hand up to where Tali had slapped him less than a day previously realized that he just couldn't catch a break.

Shepard looked up at the sky with a sour expression. It wasn't that he didn't like the rain, though most people seemed to, besides he hadn't even known rain existed before he was around 13 years old. But he wasn't wearing a helmet and he wanted to stay dry. Shepard, quickly followed by Garrus and Tali found shelter underneath the overhang of one of the short skyscrapers that made up the center of town. Shepard planted his back against a wall and slid down to the ground, a few minutes ago they had been informed that it might be a while before the shuttle could be back to pick them up.

Tali mimicking him slid down as well, she laid her head on his shoulder and he laid his on her head. After a few minutes Tali noticed Shepard was humming a tune. That tune and the noises of the rain were the last thing that went through her head as she drifted off. Shepard followed shortly after her.

"Ahem, Ahem!"

Shepard stirred on the first sound, and started by the time the second one came around. Jolting Tali awake as well. Looking up Shepard saw Ashley standing over them both, she was definitely eyeing them suspiciously but that was all. Offering a hand to help them both up she and Shepard embraced in a hug, which was half hearted on his part. She pulled back, resting her arms on his shoulders she looked into his face and asked "What is it? What's wrong?"

Shepard looked down at the ground; this was going to be harder than he thought. He said weakly "How are you?"

Looking him up and down, she saw the markings indicating him as a captain and evaded his question with the statement "Well I didn't think that that 'oh captain my captain' thing was gonna be this close to the mark."

Shepard smiled weakly at her halfhearted joke, and after a minute decided to nip this in the bud saying "Ashley-"

She interrupted with an expectant air in her voice "Yes?"

Meanwhile Tali's blood was boiling, she wanted to go over there and rip Ashley's head off. Shepard drops off the grid, he is literally dead and she gets mad at him for not contacting her. And She gets mad at him for working with Cerberus. Okay, Tali could understand that, ever since the incident with the Grayson child the Migrant Fleet had been especially weary of Cerberus. But still the second that Shepard is out of Cerberus Ashley shows up and just assumes that Shepard has waited for her, after what she did to him. But something, for some reason was stopping her. After a minute, she steeled herself and began walking back over to Shepard.

Shepard, not noticing Tali approaching from behind him, decided that he'd need to nip this in the bud, now. He said "Ash, I'm sorry but this, can't-won't work."

Ashley's face went from one of joy to one of shock she stammered "Wh-wh-why?"

Shepard turned around part way trying to find inspiration in how best to tell Ashley and ran right into Tali. Who without a moments hesitation wrapper her arm around Shepard's, in a way 'marking her territory'.

Ashley stared at them both and gave a half step of ground backwards saying "How could you? I mean, won't that kill you?" She asked, clearly intending the second question for Tali. Who didn't say a thing, or make any physical movement to either confirm or deny Ashley's supposition. The only thing that would have given her away was a smile on Tali's part, which Ashley couldn't see at all through the helmet.

Shepard grimaced, as he said "I'm sorry, I truly a-"

Shepard's last word was cut off by a slap from Ashley, punctuated with the words "Save it."

Shepard knew it was coming and didn't even try to stop it, but Tali hadn't and the only thing that stopped her from reaching over and replying in kind was that her preferred hand was wrapped up in Shepard's and he had contracted the muscles of the arm to stop her from getting free.

Ashley turned around and stormed off. And after taking a few large steps she whirled around again and pointed a finger at Shepard. And because she was back out in the rain he couldn't tell if it was rain on her face or if she had started crying. But she was definitely saying something, and he thought he caught bits and pieces of it "How could-choose her over-I mean,-a Quarian!"

With that last word she turned around and stormed off again, and Shepard held onto Tali who had stayed silent until she had heard what Ashley had said. And now, he was stopping her from running off and slapping Ashley. And to make up for the fact that she couldn't physically slap her Tali was leaning as far forward as she could and railing insults and expletives into the rain in Ashley's general direction.

If Shepard hadn't known the half of the words that the translator managed to catch Shepard would have laughed at this situation. But as it was Tali wasn't even close to calming down. Eventually she did calm down enough to go and sit back down, but not before railing off a series of expletives, insults and insinuations that took her roughly 8 minutes before she was finally calm enough to sit down. About 45 minutes after Tali finally calmed down the shuttle arrived. After everyone climbed in the shuttle lifted off, and within another 10 to 15 the shuttle was being hoisted back up into its cradle on the roof of the cargo bay.

Shepard, and the rest of the team flopped out of the shuttle, exhausted even f they hadn't had any fighting they had definitely been tensed up enough to expend a lot of energy. After going up and taking care of his armor and taking a shower, Shepard took a nap for a couple of hours. He was out before he even hit the pillow.

A few hours later Shepard walked into the bay and was pleased to find the Batarian alive and still whining. He turned to Doctor Chakwas, who knew what he was going to ask and headed him off saying "Well, first off, after a couple of hours of Grunt staring unblinkingly at him he finally turned on the translator on his own."

Shepard smiled at that, and said "What else?"

She continued, "After that, it took another hour and a half but he just started blurting out anything and everything he knew including a couple of actually delicious sounding recipes." Shepard rolled his eyes, and seeing this she continued "But among all of the gibberish and garbage there was some interesting stuff. We'll have to talk to him 'properly' but it looks like this wasn't any slaver or pirate attack. This might have been an actual government sanctioned attack."

Shepard grew pale, the Batarian government had pulled back into their own systems a long time ago, and had been waging a proxy war with the Alliance after they lost the verge. But if they were outright attacking colonies now, without using pirates and slavers as a front, this was big. Shepard shook his head at the implications, this was either incredibly bad timing or the Reapers had found a new tool to use against the galaxy. Shepard didn't know which.

The Illusive Man inhaled from one of his favorite cigarettes. And looking down at the screen he smiled, this would be interesting. Miranda, and Mordin were good, but they weren't as good as they thought. They had come very close to removing every single bug from the entire ship, but then again close only counts in Horseshoes and hand grenades. For a moment he considered removing Shepard from play, especially as he had put so much effort into rebuilding him just to be stabbed in the back. He shook himself, that was precisely why he couldn't do that too much money and resources put into something to destroy it.

Looking around at other screens, he saw other people that could be put to use, that was the beauty of safeguards, even after Shepard had won the loyalty of the entire crew they were still _his_. He smiled again as he exhaled, one should be enough. At least, just to prove a point he pressed a button on the holographic console floating in front of him and smiled as his new plan went into motion.


	18. Chapter 17

Hey guys, I think this is going to be a really good chapter, its kind of sad, and scary though. But I'm sort of jaded, so let me know what you think, peace!

Sarah Hendrickson, one of the Normandy's crewmembers couldn't stop the pain from coming, but every time she thought about going to Doctor Chakwas it would only intensify. And every time she wasn't actively thinking about something the same little whisper would come into the back of her mind 'go to engineering, end it, end the pain'. She didn't know what was happening to her, she managed to force down some sleeping pills and go to sleep in the crew quarters. For a while she slept, fitfully, but she did manage to sleep. When she finally woke up, it was 'nighttime' on the Normandy the lights weren't fully dimmed, but they were down a setting or two. Just to let the majority of the crew rest easier. The pain was even more intense now, she couldn't stna dit she reached for some more sleeping pills. An incredible jolt of pain cleared her mind and made her recoil. The whispers were back again 'got to engineering end it, now'. Finally just to see if that would ease her pain she did so. Within a few minutes she was down in the engineering compartment. For right now it was empty, for some reason that dark corner of her mind told her that this was good. She scurried over to a workstation, and after a few minutes of hugging herself, rocking back and forth on her feet and looking around the whispers started again 'the pain will stop when you end it'. She finally was beginning to understand the meaning of the whispers, she understood what she had to do now to end the pain. Suddenly the whispers started to become more specific 'go to the console, you know what to do, end it, NOW!' Shakily she staggered over to the workstation and began entering commands; this started to ease the pain greatly. The console before her turned red, and a warning symbol began to overlay itself above the text and schematics. Suddenly the whispers told her to 'mute the voice'. So leaning over she pressed a button and suddenly the droning that she heard in the back of her mind stopped. She smiled as like a dog being petted her mind was flooded with endorphins for her good work. She stood there, for how long she didn't know getting a natural high off of her body's own natural systems going into overdrive.

Ken and Gabby both walked into the engineering compartment. As usual Gabby was rolling her eyes at some statement Ken had made about one of the women on the ship, in this case Jack who was up in the mess hall right now. Gabby immediately walked over to her workstation and began working immediately, Ken who could never ignore a beautiful women walked over to Sarah and patted her on the shoulder trying to get her attention. He said in his heavy accent "Hey there Sarah, and how are you-" Ken was already looking at the screen in front of Sarah before turning and saying to Gabby "Um, Gabby I think we've got a problem here."

She turned and replied "What, what is it?" looking at Sarah obviously assuming that there was something wrong with her, especially because she looked so incredibly happy despite looking like she had recently been through absolute hell.

Ken was looking closer and saw a timer begin counting down, the caption above it read 'Time till critical failure-0:09'. He turned around and started yelling "Gabby run."

Perplexed, she didn't move "What's the matter?"

Ken ran for her, and yelled again "Goddamn it, when I say run, I mean run!" emphasizing his point with extra forceful shoves to her back as he shoved her out of the door. Now Gabby was completely confused. She turned around, hoping to ask him what the hell was going on with him, but suddenly the image of Ken's back transformed into a silhouette outlined by a blinding flash that was accompanied by a deafening noise and horrible jolt. And as the outer doors to engineering slammed shut to maintain a pressurized environment a blackened mass hurtled out toward the opposite wall of the corridor. But it's flight was cut short as a portion of it was caught on the far side of the doors.

Shepard jumped out of bed, whether it was the noise, or the jolt that woke him up he didn't know. But looking around at the emergency lighting in his cabin the first thought that popped into his head was the final hours of his 'first' life; before the original Normandy had been destroyed. Looking over Tali was already scrambling into her suit. Shepard ran for the door, and within two, maybe three seconds was joined by Tali. Shepard jammed his thumb slamming it into the button for the CIC deck. As he did so, he shouted to the ceiling "EDI, status. Status EDI what's our status!" He got no reply from the AI. They rode down to the CIC deck to find total carnage, Shepard could clearly see Joker lying in a jumble up against a wall. With multiple limbs bent too far out of shape and at unnatural angles. Shepard shouted out to anyone who wasn't bust helping someone, "What's happening?"

Kelly ran past them and replied "Were not under attack, nothing came up on the LADAR systems. Probably a mechanical failure in the engines, reports are coming in that the lowest 2 decks are the hardest hit, they need help down there."

Tali's voice, fueled by being woken up mid-sleep and by someone essentially insinuating that she, or one of her people was a bad mechanic replied indignantly "That's not possible, I wouldn't let that happen." The second half of her voice came out pained, whatever had happened it had ended up in the damage of her 'babies' the engines for whom it was her responsibility to look after. As a Quarian, such a catastrophe reflected poorly on the both the ship and the mechanics who crewed her when there was a majorly catastrophic failure.

Shepard nodded and before the door could fully close Kelly, Mordin and a couple of other people had piled into the elevator. What he saw on the crew deck was even worse, there was blood everywhere. One or two people that had never really been in anything this bad had broken down and crawled into corners even if they were perfectly fit and healthy.

Shepard ran out and started helping some of the wounded over to the medical bay. Helping a crewman hobble into the infirmary the first words out of Doctor Chakwas' mouth were "Get him out," She said indicating the man Shepard was helping, looking around he immediately recognized why. He'd been in enough field hospitals to recognize a triage center when he saw it. Turning around he immediately said over his shoulder "Doc, Joker's up in the CIC, and he is not doing too well."

You'd have needed a camera to make any sense of the blur that was Doctor Chakwas as she ran past Shepard and out the door. She kept on going and turned the corner for the elevator. Shepard followed and placed the man up against the wall near the elevator, if there were too many people hurt, they could start ferrying the mildly wounded ones up the elevator to the CIC if they needed to make more room. Looking back Shepard saw Mordin had taken Chakwas' place in the biobay. For a while longer this process continued, and things started to calm down. After borrowing a radio Shepard was informed that Joker will be okay, eventually but they can't move him not right now. And that one of the crew in the CIC had taken the helm and informed him that they were drifting, but thankfully they were nowhere near any kind of dangerous gravitic masses.

Shepard felt totally useless, he had never been good at anything beyond applying medigel. So he did what he could keep abreast of everything going on right now, and checking on the crew. Shepard walked into the medical bay, Mordin had appropriated the AI Core as a surgical theatre, because there was no room to work in the overcrowded medbay. Shepard heard someone crying, and turning around he saw Gabby, bent over a blackened husk. Walking closer, he saw that it was Ken and that he was hanging on barely. He also saw Ken was missing both of his legs from about the midpoint between the ankles and the knees. Between hacking up blood Ken tried whispering a few words to Gabby before she replied with "No, no shh, shhh shhh. Save your strength."

Shepard turned to find Mordin wheeling out a patient and walking over to the two he gently eased Gabby off of Ken and began wheeling him into the AI core, all Gabby could say between sobs was "You'll take good care of him, right?"

Mordin gave a reassuring smile as he said "Only the best." But Shepard saw a sad look in his eyes as he visually scanned over Ken. And then the door to the core was closed, for a couple of minutes Shepard stayed in the biobay, comforting her. And he eventually managed to get her to go take a break and sat down on a bed in the crew quarters.

Walking out, that same feeling of uselessness swept over him as he saw the piles of people arrayed around each other as there were to many people that had been hurt, in fact one person who had been rolled out of surgery was still clinging to the same knife that had nearly killed her when the jolt from the blast sent her head forward nearly severing the arteries in her neck in the process.

After a few minutes Shepard got a call from Miranda, and went to go find out what it was that she wanted. And walking in Shepard could see that Miranda had been sleeping as well, but right now she was totally awake and watching a video intently on the screen of her computer. Shepard started turning around the desk to see what it was that she was looking at. And saw Sarah, one of the crewmembers that was still unaccounted for rocking back and forth on the spot, and mumbling to herself.

Miranda had turned the audio up and they were both able to distinctly hear her say "This-this-this should end it. This should end the pain,"

As she frenziedly worked on the workstation in front of her, the screen changed and EDI's voice could be heard "Ms. Hendrickson I seriously advise that you reset the engines to their normal settin-" Sarah leant over, and pressing a button EDI went totally silent.

With this last act Sarah, started to merely produce a serious of jumbled noises. And then Ken and Gabby walked in. And Shepard turned away, having seen what happened to Ken he realized that he had tried to go back and save Sarah as well.

He turned back and looked at Miranda, who was waiting for him to ask her a question since she was apparently too shocked to believe what she had seen. The video that was now behind her had paused as the camera associated with it had stopped recording on that timestamp. He asked "I thought Kelly would be able to figure out if anyone was suicidal?"

It was more a question than a statement, and Miranda replied to the inflection in Shepard's voice "I thought so too, but every once in a while something will eventually slip through the cracks."

Shepard grimaced as he tried to figure out what could be done, thankfully other than the damage to the engines, and the deaths of at least one crew member nothing else had been lost. Miranda leaned over and pressed a button on her desk and both were assaulted by EDI as she shouted something mid-sentence.

After a second or two, she seemed to regain her composure as she said in a normal if strained tone. "Captain, you already seem to know that we are dead in the water. But something else has just come up. Apparently The Illusive Man wants to speak with you, he is already waiting for you via the briefing room's Quantum comm. unit.


	19. Chapter 18

Hey folks, sorry it took me so long to get this one out. The final weeks of school have been a *****. Let me know what you think of my take on TIM speaking. I have gotten him down perfectly when he is plotting, but I'm not too sure about the speaking parts. Anyways, here you go, I love it when Shepard is angry…

Shepard stormed into the briefing room, and right onto the desk that was already in the floor and waiting for him. On his way up for some reason he had grabbed a pistol and holstered it as he went through the armory. He could actually shoot The Illusive Man, so he didn't know why he grabbed it but he suddenly felt better just having it on his belt. If the Illusive man was going to say something to him, try to convince him to come 'back into the fold' of Cerberus, he was going to let him know that that was definitely not going to be happening. Besides in the back of his mind Shepard knew that the Illusive Man had something to do with this somehow maybe he had blackmailed her into this, or maybe she had been sick in some way and he just hadn't seen it. The pedestal had finished scanning him, and now he was standing before the seated Illusive Man in the same dark room, with the star as a backdrop. Today it was somewhere between its two extremes of blue and red. Shepard growled in a loud voice "What do you want? Whatever it is I'd appreciate if you would hurry it up, I have a ship to deal with."

The Illusive Man simply smiled as he said "I understand, but from what my sources have told me lately you have just been to a colony that was apparently attacked by the Batarians. And if this is true than you will need every bit of help you can get, to end this threat quickly."

Shepard cocked his head to one side, and crossed his arms shifting his weight mostly to one head he struck an argumentative pose and said "Ohh, really. And how would this little deal work out exactly?"

The Illusive Man sounded diplomatic as he said "Well, as was the arrangement prior to the Collector Base incident, you have access to our funds, and our unmanned automated facilities across the galaxy. You have access to any information that I can give you."

Shepard knew that this was only what he was getting so he said "And what's the catch?"

The Illusive Man grimaced as he said "You stay, 'autonomous' in that you aren't an actual member of Cerberus. But, in exchange, you will put more of a positive spin on Cerberus as we work together to bring down the Batarian Totalitarian government."

Shepard knew what this really meant: after the Batarians were brought down and a peaceful government put in in its place then Shepard would credit part of the victory to Cerberus and put either a pro-human or a anti-alien spin on the entire thing. Eventually leading to Cerberus getting more members and more support towards their overall goal: total domination of the galaxy for all humans. Shepard put all of the sarcasm into his voice that he could as he said "Yeah, welp. That aint gonna happen, sorry."

The Illusive Man took a drag of his cigarette and smiled, he knew that Shepard would give him this answer and he had his trump card waiting in the wings. He gestures to one of the floating displays that was off to one side angled towards him, and flipped it around to show to Shepard. It was the same video from Miranda's office, but from a slightly different angle. This one showed her face, as she manipulated the controls, her face showed the incredible pain she was in. Right up until the control started flashing warnings, and then suddenly her face went slack. Obviously released from that pain.

The blood from Shepard's face drained, he said "How'd you get a video of that?"

The Illusive Man said in a matter of fact manner "Miranda has always been my best agent, not only did she remove all of the bugs that I told her about, but with Mordin's help she found some of the ones that I never informed her of."

Shepard regained some color to his face as he said "Okay, well what about it. This video only shows a crazy person committing suicide." Shepard kept a perfect poker face, but inwardly he was kicking himself, the training he had received and the his own inherent tendencies all were screaming at him. You never spoke ill of a fallen comrade, never ever.

The Illusive Man said "Oh, no this video is more than that. This is actually a proof of concept test."

Shepard said "What do you mean?"

The Illusive Man smiled again as he said "Nanites, nanites that emulate nature in fact. While control chips damage the brain before and after installation and use, these nanites do the very same job and only cause damage after you activate them."

Shepard said "So, you made her kill herself?" He simply nodded. Shepard muttered under his breath 'Bastard'

Still seated he started to speak, saying "Yes, her and other members of the crew and Cerberus operatives across the galaxy were infected with these nanites some time after becoming members of the organization. So, you can either fall in line. Or you can effectively sign the death warrant of both you and everyone else on the ship, including the Quarian." Shepard caught a hint of disghust in his voice as he said this.

Shepard had been contemplating the floor, as far as he could tell he was in no position to truly fight back he was being held hostage on his own ship, defeated. But when he had made a threat against Tali, let alone everyone else on the ship that was the final straw. Looking up suddenly he said "No."

The Illusive Man stood up to his full, and rather significant height. He had been trying his best to keep his calm but he was going to have Shepard fall in line one way or another he said in a menacing voice "What do you mean, no?"

Shepard smiled as he looked up and into the Illusive Man's mechanical like eyes and said "That is exactly what I mean, no. And" lifting a finger and poking it in The Illusive Man's direction, his voice steadily rising as he said "if you ever, ever, ever again try to coerce me or threaten me or my crew I will hunt you down. And I will END YOU!"

Pulling the gun out of the holster Shepard pointed it straight down at the floor and unloaded the entire clip into the center of the floor. Causing his image of the Illusive man to flicker and die. Shepard holstered the weapon, and started to walk out of the door.

As he walked EDI said "I understand that you were trying to send a message to The Illusive Man, but I would appreciate it if you wouldn't do it by shooting up my 'body'. Shepard didn't even need an image to see the quotation marks that she was using around the term.

He looked at the ceiling and in an apologetic voice he said "I'm sorry EDI, when we get the engines fixed up well get brand new wood paneling."

Shepard could also hear the smile in her voice as she said "I'd like that." Shepard smiled, but was quickly interrupted by EDI saying "And by the way Shepard, we have managed to get one of the alliance ships to drag us back to the Arcturus with them."

Shepard said "Good, is there anything else for right now?"

Shepard was walking through the CIC, towards the elevator at this point when she said "Most everyone is in a stable condition. Apparently, Joker will live." Shepard was beginning to form a sigh of relief when EDI continued "But unfortunately, Mr. Donnelley didn't make it."


	20. Chapter 19

It was like a sucker punch to the gut. Shepard leaned against the jam to the elevator door for a few minutes as he tried to compartmentalize everything. As much as people believed that after years of seeing both friends and enemies die it was easier for soldiers to deal with it, and to some degree it was but in reality it was only easier in coming to terms with death. Not in dealing with the pain from seeing friends die.

Shepard was numbly aware of Kelly's voice in the background saying "Commander, are you alright?"

Shepard absentmindedly waved her off, saying "No, no I'm fine. Don't worry."

He didn't notice if she said anything else to him, and after a minute or two stood upright and walked fully into the elevator pressing the button for the crew deck. When the door opened Shepard was careful to not step on the legs of any of the wounded that still littered the hallway.

As careful as he was he nearly tripped over a crewman and swore profusely as at the same time he apologized for his clumsiness. Shepard was tired, he hadn't gotten a full nights sleep in the last week for some reason or other. But nonetheless quickly found himself standing in front of the door to Miranda's office.

Without making his presence known Shepard walked through the door to the office. Miranda, having heard the door open leapt up from where she had been sitting. Garrus scuttled by Shepard pretending to be surprised he exclaimed "Oh, hello Shepard, just having a little conversation gotta go."

Shepard gave Miranda a few moments to regain her composure as she was currently blushing an incredibly bright pink. After a few seconds Shepard took one fo the chairs and turned it to sit down facing her behind her desk. He said "So, what do you know?"

She gave him a genuinely puzzled look "About what?"

Shepard was tired and after the events of the last hour or so he didn't know how much longer he'd be able to contain his anger. He barely managed to keep his anger to a low growl as he said "About whatever it is that is controlling the crew. To make them do these things."

She gave him another puzzled look as he realized that she hadn't been listening in on his conversation with the Illusive Man. So after a few seconds of explaining to her what he had been told by the Illusive Man she said "I'm not sure, I'll have a look through the database and let you know." Shepard nodded, in this instance it would have to do. He got up and left, and as he was walking he realized how exhausted he really was but he couldn't sleep, not now.

So for the next few hours Shepard kept himself busy, helping Doctor Chakwas with treating everyone. He couldn't find Tali anywhere, and was a little bit worried about her. She had been having a bit of a relapse lately, the antibiotics weren't having as great an effect anymore.

After what seemed like forever Miranda came over the intercom saying "Shepard, I think I've found something."

Shepard almost ran for the door to Miranda's office, as he came in she already had the screen facing the door and almost immediately started to speak. "I think these might just be the little buggars, that are causing us our problems."

As Shepard leaned in closer, he could see that the image on the screen was that of a small metallic looking insect, and the lettering beside it told him that this was a rather substantial magnification. Without looking up from the screen he was still studying he said "What are these things?"

"Nanites, just like the Illusive Man said." The definitive tone in her voice told him, that she had found them a while ago. And that this was the only thing in the entire database that could have these kind of effects.

He blinked, as he tried to clear his eyes. Before asking her "How do the work?"

"He was right when he said that they emulate nature, you remember the Thorian on Theros?" Shepard shuddered, how could he forget that monstrosity.

Miranda took that as enough of an answer and continued, saying "Like the spores that the Thorian put out, these nanites infest the mind. They implant suggestions for tasks that the host should perform, and when the host refuses, does the task incorrectly or resists in any way. They attack the pain center of the brain, and when the task is done, they release stimulate the pleasure centers. Rewarding the host for completing the task."

Shuddering as he did so Shepard said "Like a dog." Miranda grimly nodded. He was no scientist but he understood what that meant: when you were physically tortured your body could become used to the pain, dull it out. Turn it into 'white noise' that your brain filtered out as unimportant after enough time. But the pain center of the brain could never be blanked out, you could be tortured for years by someone stimulating that part of your brain and it would never, never stop. Shepard clenched his jaw as in his own mind he vowed once again to end the bastard that had done this.

The exhaustion was getting to him, he was trying to process everything in his mind as he said "So, what else do you know?"

Miranda gave him an apologetic look as she said "Not much, I didn't even know that these thins had been made. Everything in the files indicated that they were still in the alpha developmental stage. Not even ready for a test."

"Is there any way we can remove them?"

"I'm not sure, I'll have to do some research on it." Miranda said apologetically.

Shepard looked at her and quickly said "Okay, get right on it."

"Yes sir." She said in a reassuring voice, as she saw how tired he was she said "Look, you need to get some sleep."

Shepard shook his head, "No, no they need me." He gestured towards the door, as he said that.

"Yes, they do need you. And you'll be useless to everyone if you die of exhaustion. They need you to be strong right now, and the last thing they need is to see you looking like this. Don't worry, when I figure something out I'll let you know." She said with a reassuring smile.

Shepard smiled back weakly, before nodding "You're right, I just can't stand it. I can't pilot the ship, I'm no medic. I just can't do anything which is the worst part."

Miranda patted him on the shoulder lightly before shoving him gently towards the door "Get some sleep, you'll be the first to know when I figure something out."

Shepard nodded before heading out of the door, and carefully made his way around everyone arrayed on the floor. He tried his best to emanate calm reassurance to everyone as he made his way to the elevator. When he got back into the loft he collapsed onto his bed without even getting undressed.

A/N: I apologize it has taken me so long to get another chapter out. I just needed a major brake after the end of the school year. Sorry…


End file.
